Well, not literally, thank goodness. I was rubbing him under his chin, just really light, quick strokes and apparently built up a static charge on his fur. He jumped back and yelped as if he had been shocked, then jumped up onto the couch and glared at me. Fortunately, some treats convinced him to forgive me. Have any of you surprised or startled your pets in unusual ways?
My daughter got some very realistic, battery-operated toy sleeping cat. Lying there curled up with its eyes closed it would appear to restfully breathe in and out. We put it on the ground just to see what our non-battery operated real cat would do. She walked in, saw it, cautiously stalked up and then like lightning her right paw flew out and Whap!Whap!Whap! tagged it three times on the head before running up the stairs and hiding under the bed.
God, this was back, probably 1980 or so. My mom had a sweet little Spitz named Trixie. It was Halloween, and I was dressed up in some ghoulish zombie type costume to go to work- mask, gloves, the whole shebang. Trixie was sleeping soundly on the throw rug by the front door, and I came out of the bathroom fully made up and nudged her with my foot to make her move. She looked up at me and literally SCREAMED… I have never heard a sound likie that come out of a dog before or since, and she literally DID pee herself.
I felt terrible for scaring her that badly, but at the same time…
… god, it was funny.
Mr. Athena literally scared the piss out of our dog once.
We used to have a Shiba Inu, and he liked to sleep on the top of a staircase in the 100-year-old house we lived in at the time.
Shortly before Halloween, Mr. Athena bought a mask very similar to this. One day, he noticed the doggy sleeping in his usual spot on the top of the stairs, and decided to play a trick on him. He put the mask on, and very slowly and quietly crept up the stairs.
The stairs were steep and narrow, and when you were at the top, you had to peer over to see down them - it was hard to see people coming. So our poor doggy had no idea Mr. Athena was coming up the stairs until he was almost all the way to the top. Doggy heard something, lazily woke up, and peered down the stairs to see this CREATURE coming up at him.
Mr. Athena growled softly. Doggy jumped to his feet, rolled back his eyes and SCREAMED out barks, whilst all the while pissing on himself.
I’ve never seen a dog so scared in my life. Mr. Athena immediately took the mask off and collapsed into a mixture of guilt and laughter. I think the dog took 30 minutes to calm down.
It’s still one of the funniest things I can remember. But yeah, we feel sort of guilty since it was obvious the dog was scared out of his skin. We had no clue he’d freak out so badly!
I’m pretty sure that’s the only time in my life I’ve seen any creature - human or otherwise - so scared they pissed themselves.
HA! Dogs and Halloween costumes! I’m not the only one! Funny we both describe the sound as a scream - dogs really do scream when they’re scared!
My parents have a coffee table with little wrought iron curlycues on the bottom. The dog was sniffing around underneath there and got her collar caught on one of the curlycues. Poor thing got stuck and was so scared that she pooed a little. My Dad said that she was making noises that she has never made before.
Now whenever she walks by the table she sniffs at it and looks at it all suspiciously.
I let my Boston sleep in her crate. I keep the crate next to the wall and beside my bed.
Not too long after buying her, I reached through the crate’s wire netting to scratch behind her ears.
She nearly came out of her skin. :eek: I guess she didn’t realize the wire mesh allowed anyone to see her or touch her. She must have thought she was in her own little den and nothing could reach her.
Now, every night before turning off the lights I scratch her ears through the wire mesh. Doesn’t bother her at all.
But, that very first time. 
When my pug was younger, I whistled a little tune and freaked out both cats and the dog.
Who knew I’d never whistled before, during their lifetimes? It took the better part of two days to get my most skitty-kitty to trust me again. It took one doggy treat for Sweet Pea to get over it.:rolleyes: