My in-laws late pooch was afraid of vegetables. Egplant and zicchini in particular. As far as I could tell she wasn’t afraid of them in anything other than their whole form.
My cat takes off like a rocket at the sound of anything being sprayed.
My cat hisses at the dishwasher when I am running it. Maybe it just makes too much noise. She also has issues with the garden hose, because while she was running across the yard, she got caught in the stream, and now whenever it’s being sprayed, she cries at the back door for someone to let her in.
A lot of cats are afraid of any hissing noise or any object that has been known to make a hissing noise in the past, because that’s the sound an angry cat makes. One of mine is scared of the Swiffer mop that I have. It’s the kind that has a sprayer, and of course it makes a hissing noise. Our Skippy runs from the mop, or the sight of the disposable pad that goes on the bottom of it.
We also have one who had the unfortunate “looped around the neck” experience, with a jingle bell on the end of a piece of ribbon. Runs in terror now at the sound of a jingle bell because she just knows it’s going to chase her around the house. We put that phobia to good use, though. We hang a couple on the Christmas tree, and it keeps her from trying to climb it or play with the ornaments.
I have a Great Dane (Lucy) and a Lab (Ella). Lucy isn’t scared of a thing. Now, Ella…she is scared of everything. Her list of personal demons would be a long one indeed. A few examples though…The first thing we noticed is that she is scared of bowls and plates which makes feeding her a challenge. We have to put a scoop of food on the floor for her twice a day.
Ella is also scared of corners. Everytime she has to turn the corner you can see her screwing up her courage to make it around the bend. Thunder? Forget it…she’s a quivering mass of fur. The other day we were outside and a magazine was left on the table. One of the pages happend to flutter in the breeze and she hit the deck as if she were having a Vietnam flashback.
As to why she is this way, we simply do not know. We’ve had here since she was 7 weeks old and she has always been treated very well. My doggies are my kiddos and I love them to pieces. We have tried natural/herbal remedies to no avail.
Curious George.
My cat likes to play with pretty much anything, and most of my teddy bears and other small stuffed animals have become her toys. Except for the 4 inch tall Curious George doll. It’s the monkey, holding a ball next to him, and the cat HATES it. I can’t toss it at her like I do her other toys, because she runs away. She’s tried to screw up her courage to touch it, but that usually involves half an hour or so of putting out her paw and taking it back without touching the toy! We think she might be trying to get to the toy ball, but is not too sure why the stupid litle monkey won’t give it up (she doesn’t understand that they are sewed together!). The reason we think this is because she will only become brave enough to touch the ball, not the monkey part. Very weird!
My cats are both afraid of the noise a beer bottle makes when you blow across the top. They both puff up, look around wildly then slink along the ground to hide under the bed.
On the flip side, Napoleon isn’t terribly bothered by the vacuum cleaner, and George actually lets us vacuum him with the little bristle-less attachment. He looooves it.
siberia you have the canine doppelgangers to my cats. I’ve also had my male cat since he was 7 weeks old, and he is just a scaredy cat. He still runs and hides if someone walks up the stairs, I walk too directly towards him, etc, etc.
Mnemosyne the above cat HATES sock monkeys. Actually, he’s not so much afraid of them as that he wants to KILL them. CAFM (Cats Against Fake Monkeys) unite!
My conure has a stuffed animal phobia.
I received a small teddy bear (about four inches high) on my birthday. When I showed it to Tupac, he dove into the corner of the cage and shook.
If I pick the bear up, he shrieks. It’s a wee pink bear, I don’t get the fear.
My cat is also terrified of plastic bags, and the sound they make. My (now ex) boyfriend came over to my house one time, and he was wearing a windbreaker. As he reached down to pet my cat, the windbreaker crackled, causing my poor kitty to go into spasms of terror.
He’s also terrified of nail polish. He hates the smell, but every time I paint my nails, he just has to come over and inspect what I’m doing. Then he gets mad at me for the smell of nail polish.
My bird has an aversion to laundry baskets. Walk past with a full hamper and he behaves like hell has been unleashed.
We have one pet, a four-year-old Newfoundland dog named Zeus. Newfs are large dogs, (they’re like black or black and white St. Bernards, if you’ve never seen one), and you’d think they’d be relatively fearless, but ours is a regular nut case.
He flees in terror from soccer balls, refuses to drink from anything other than white plastic water bowls or the first water dish we gave him, won’t walk up or down staircases, and, this last is sort of like your bird, jagatlgt), he won’t walk past laundry baskets (or my bass case) if one is left directly in his path and he has no alternative way around. He’ll wait for someone to move it for him, keeping a wary eye on it the whole time.
*make that japatlgt
We have yellow lab/golden mix (Isaac) and a golden retriever (Rusty). Rusty is a quivering mass of fear – separation anxiety, thunderstorm anxiety, food anxiety, you name it. We have to COAX him to eat about 50% of the time, and he is so anxious he can’t even eat at all unless he’s had his doggie Prozac first. During storms, I have to physically hold him, WHILE he’s medicated, WHILE he’s wearing his Anxiety Wrap. From him we expect it.
Isacc, on the other hand, is fearless. Except for two things – heavy rain (i.e. tropical storm-type rain, 4" an hour or so), and driving across the causeway across Lake Pontchartrain. Flips him out. All I can figure is it’s something to do with the road noise.
I live in Duluth, Minnesota, which is right on Lake Superior. As is the case with about half the city, you can hear the fghorn from my house. I’m far enough away that it’s not too loud, but you can still hear a low little toot. The cat and I have lived here since October. The foghorn goes off several times a day. And yet, the cat is still terrified, every single time. As soon as the foghorn starts its series of toots, the cat give me her oh shit look, then runs and hides under the futon.
All my past dogs were scared of thunderstorms, of course. And just the past few months, my female dog Lizzie has developed a fear of our linolium(sp) floor. She loves carpet but stands there and whines until you come get her to walk across the kitchen floor & hall to get to the living room or bedroom. hehe.
My African Grey parrots fear almost everything, but most especially stick-like things. Brooms, floor lamps, yardsticks, canes, furled umbrellas, vacuum cleaners (even when turned off)… Maybe their ancestral home is a region of Africa populated by Rigor Mortis-Afflicted Zombie Snakes Of Death.
My Golden Retriever, Max has an arch-enemy–and his name is WIGHEAD!
I’m an actor and “living historian.” One day I was getting ready to do a school presentation as an historical character and was getting made up in the bathroom at home. Max wandered in and saw my wig on a styrofoam head and went ballistic. He got between me and Wighead and snarled, bared his teeth, growled, and generally told the foam fiend that if it made a move at me, it’d have to deal with HIM first! Good old Max, protecting me from my own hairpiece. I picked up Wighead and said, “It’s okay, Maxie; see? It won’t hurt you.” Oh, GOD, it moved!! It moved, it moved, it moved! It’s ALIVE! Max yelped like a scalded beast and dived behind the sofa (Take it away; take it away!!!) – and wouldn’t come out until Wighead was locked up in his wig-case again.
Max HATES Wighead.
I had an angora bunny called Basil for 7 years, and he lived in a hutch in the house. He were already 2 when he came to live with me, and I was warned by his breeder that he was very skittish, and that all angoras were a bit nervous about loud noise, sudden movements, etc.
Basil never had a problem with all the dogs, cats, noise, guitar amps, vacuums cleaners (I used to vacuum him, too; he enjoyed it). Nothing phased him. If I called his name whilst he was sacked out, he would twitch one ear with a gesture similar to a raised eyebrown in a human…he loved playing with empty soda cans in his metal home…when he heard me finish my shower he would start throwing his ball-bell toys, cans, everything, around, really trashing the place with joy, knowing he was about to get his treat…
But show him the deadly stealth biscuit tin? Major freak out…
My horse likes to keep me guessing as to what he’ll find terrifying. There’s not pattern to it, but I guess it keeps me on my toes. My last big kersplat came when we were out for a hack, he was in super-chilled mode, taking it all in his stride. Tractor coming…no worries, cockeral crowing…not a problem, bird scarer going off…easy peasy. We get to a point where we can have a good gallop and set off. He’s bowling along, really relaxed, about half a mile later we’re running out of grass so its time to pull up when he goes ‘theres…a…LOGINTHEBUSHES!!!’ Next thing Im on the floor and he’s about 50 feet away looking at me as if to say ‘i’m in SO much trouble now aren’t I?’
Git.
My cat is petrified by the sound of a freight train. Goes absolutly nuts.