I’m Ginger, the blue-eyed Cattle Dog Beagle mix. I didn’t used to be afraid of any dogs until a couple who were unleashed rushed over and attacked me. Now I’m afraid of any dog I met after that happened, unless I’m off my leash. I’m quick as lightning, so I fear no one when I’m off leash. If I meet a dog I last saw four years ago, before I was ever attacked, I’m fine. I’m not afraid of any dog smaller than my cats, no matter how much noise they make. I’m also afraid of buses. They’re loud, and they give off too much heat. It used to scare me when a car drove by with a barking dog I couldn’t see, but I figured out they’re no threat to me (because any dog stupid enough to jump out of a moving car is obviously no threat to an intelligent dog like me).
Daisy, here. ITD’s sheltie. I am terrified of anything that beeps- microwave, oven timer,rice cooker, pressure cooker. I’m brave enough to stand there and bark at it though!
What’s the worst?? The can opener. They twist it with their hand and it makes NO NOISE! So I bark at it.
The absolute worst??? A carrot peeler! Must bark at it at all costs.
Bottom line- if I’m scared I must bark.
Fargo, our beloved Blenheim Cavalier K.C. spaniel (R.I.P.) was the boss of all our canines, but had issues with various scary things - balloons, ceiling fans, windshield wipers, and primates on television (the orangutan wearing headphones was the worst). She also had a condition known as Flycatcher Syndrome, which at unexpected times would cause her to lunge at imaginary insects.
We have occasionally speculated on the best elements to stock a Fargo Gaslight Room, in which all of the objects and media that drove her nuts over the years would be displayed.
My Pit/GSD cross is no longer with us, but I have her diary. On Jan 7, 1998 (my 31st birthday) she wrote
Dina was also terrified of the six foot statue of a Dalmatian in front of the downtown fire station. And she was quite serious about the balloons; if I brought one into the house, she’d bark at it from the next room. She’d run one room away, and stick her head around the door and bark.
Now I turn the keyboard to Morgan, cat.
The phone is haunted. It talks, but it has no body. No lips, no lungs. It is impossible, except by supernatural forces. It scares me, but I am a very brave cat, so I keep a sharp eye on it. If it ever starts MOVING on its own, I will shred it with the claws I keep razor sharp, just in case. PHONE: HEED MY WARNING!
This is Sweetie, 50-lb black and white lab mix.
Speaking of bugs. Sometimes I have a panic attack. I whine and squeal and shake all over. ThelmaLou can’t figure out what’s bothering me, and I don’t know how to tell her: it’s because there’s a fly in the house! :eek: They, well… fly all around and buzz and come at you and they’re all over the place and you can’t get away even when you crawl up on the boxes under Thelma’s desk where you don’t even fit and I just want them to leave me alone!
My name is Dot. Stupid name. I’m TheKid’s cat, but I think I’m more of a dog. I guard this house. Mailman? I got my eye on you. I wait every morning in TheKid’s room to see you and I WILL follow you as you walk around the house, growling at you because you are on MY property. I also growl at the newspaper guy, any delivery person, and the screechy girls across the street (because they are annoying). I love talking to squirrels and birds - I know they hear me, but for some reason won’t come near me. Don’t know why - I just want to be friends. Every night I get ice cream for being such a good guard dog/cat. My sister, Mayme, doesn’t get ice cream.
I’m Mayme. I used to be scared of EVERYTHING. It’s my fault Lucy had to go live with grandma because I hid in the ceiling for DAYS on account Lucy scared me. After that day, Lucy and I couldn’t be near each other. But now I get these treats every night and they have this little white thing in the middle that make me a happy kitty. I mean a happy sunshine and rainbow kitty. Mom calls them “Happy Drugs”. Now I’m not afraid of anything. Well, like Dot, I growl at the girls across the street because they are so LOUD, but I don’t chase the mailman. I now will even let TheKid pet me! I have my human wrapped around my paws - ever heard of preemptive purring? Listen up, fellow felines, it works. If I just LOOK at my human and start purring, she will pet me. It’s pretty cool.
Cooper here again, sorry for necro-threading, I’ve been practicing posting and my Englissh haz gotten beter…
Found another scary thing…
Daddy was watching Freddy Vs. Jason on his com-pu-ter, and I was watching too…
there were these really mean peoples going round hurting other peoples, but no, that wasn’t the scariest thing, they were doing it in a…a…a…
THUNDERSTORM!!!
(sory, I must go and quiver under the bed now)
why did they insist on having these mean mans do their bad things in a thunderstorm?!?! thunderstorms are scarybad!
Dad made the thunderstorm go away though, I don’t know why he was laughing so hard, thunderstorms are SCARY!
Tuxedo here. I don’t like thunderstorms either. We had tornado warnings the other day and I was upset by the thunder and flashing lights. Did you know you can see those lights with your eyes closed tight? Scarry.
Felix, “racepug”'s. . .non-racing (but still extremely handsome) pug, here. Mommy and Daddy yelling (either at each other or not) - them doing that makes me go hide; “crackly” (such as those made by potato chips bags or by a newspaper) or LOUD (such as when that bright light in the backyard [it was lightning] hit a tree and made it fall) noises; being placed in the utility sink for my bath (I know Mommy would never hurt me but I still get nervous when Daddy picks me up, especially when I know he’s going to put me in that sink!).
Daddy was mean to me again tonight…
he asked me if I wanted to go for a car ride (my favorite thing in the whole world!), and when we got in, he made a THUNDERSTORM come out of the car speakers, I was surrounded by it, with no safe place to hide and quiver!..
so I “hid” in the front passenger seat footwell, vibrating in fear while he laughed at me!
he wouldn’t stop laughing at me, I was so embarrassed!
Then he pushed something on his magic talky-box thing and it stopped, and he apologized to me, said he wasn’t going to do it again, that he was just testing a scientific theo-ree…
I think I should bite him for being so mean to me…
… but then he shared his nummy turkey sandwich with me to make up for scaring me…
Cooper’s a Really Good Boy for not pissing all over your footwell when you did that.
Surprising that just the sound, without the lightning, caused that reaction. FWIW, in my limited experience, dogs can pick up an aversion to thunderstorms when they get older. Even as, and maybe because of, they’re going hard of hearing. Nothing like an 80 pound lap Weim climbing onto the bed during a thunderstorm, then eventually my chest, furiously licking my face. “No Dog, I can’t make it stop.”
I didn’t try the Thundershirt, but covering the dog up in a sleeping bag seemed to calm her down. I guess it was a nice warm burrow or something. Then she came to expect it at every bedtime… I was well-trained.
Hi everyone, this is MacTech’s new kitten, Loki, actually I’m a teenager, oh boy do I have some history for you…
First, I met Cooper, sweet, but an idiot, and yes, he was scared of me! I AM POINTY! …err, sorry, a bit of my Asgardian spirit just snuck through…
Anyway, Dad moved to a new place a few years ago, and Cooper would bark constantly all day, even though he was well cared for, had a good neighbor and MacTech’s mother take him for walkies while dad was at work, he just had too much separation anxiety, one of dad’s asshole neighbors complained to the lot manager and cops, so dad had to re home Cooper, Dad found him a great home, so now it’s just me, we both miss that adorable idiot, but it’s just me, Loki now, what scares me? NOTHING!!!
I get EVERYWHERE! Inside the cabinets, on top of the chairs, at the top of my cat tree (6.5’ tall), heck, I even figured out how to grab my food from the upper cabinet, drag it onto the kitchen floor and into the living room… yummy yummy Rawz kibble! Dad even made me a homemade water fountain out of a 10 gallon aquarium and Penguin 350 power filter!
I’m Carnut’s shy cat Lon and I am afraid that sometimes Carnut wants to hurt me. Sometimes she lets other servants in the place and the small one chases after me and tries to grab my tail. Then, she has something she calls the “brush”. My mom seems to like the brush and she will purr, but I know the brush will hurt me when it finds my fuzzy snarls. Carnut says it’s because my undercoat is so fine and that if I let her brush me, I wouldn’t have so many painful snarls. I think she lies. Some don’t hurt at all until she use the brush on them. Carnut is evil.