What's the dumbest/most dangerous thing you've ever done for an animal's sake?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Gather 'round, kids, I feel like telling a story.

Back when I was 17 and my brother 11, our parents both occasionally worked nights. Dad’s job didn’t believe that people’s health was affected by an uneven sleep schedule so they had people switch from day to night shifts every 3 months, and mom temped nights. I was a senior in high school, so no big deal. Well, most nights…

My bedroom was 2/3rds of the attic, and Mom and I had done a nice job remodeling it three years earlier. Except that there was a 2" wide, 5" long crack between two floor boards. My dresser was over the crack, so I hardly remembered it was there.

Until that night.

Lil bro and I had dinner and watched some tv before I headed up to do homework. And when I got into my room, my ferret’s cage was empty. Claudia had clearly escaped.

We spent a long while, probably half an hour, looking everywhere we could think of, but no Claudia. Eventually one of us got overly optimistic and wondered if she was visiting lil bro’s ferret, Fang. Of course she wasn’t, but we were still in his room when we heard it: scrabbling little claws.

We looked all over before we realized with a dawning horror that I hadn’t given much thought to the crack between the floor boards, but Claudia had.

There was much rushing about, trying to coax her out from upstairs but we only managed to upset her and drive her farther from the crack.

I don’t know what made my brother look up when we’d gone downstairs for treats to tempt her, but he did. And he could see her outline behind his ceiling light fixture.

So of course we dragged a chair into his room, pulled the fixture apart, removing the whole housing, extracted an annoyed but otherwise fine ferret from the ceiling, and reinstalled the housing and fixture before doing our homework and finally going to bed.

It was only after telling this story (not to our parents, of course) later and being separately asked if we’d shut off the power that it ever occurred to either of us that we were lucky not to have injured ourselves or Claudia when we yanked the wiring out as we removed the light’s housing.

So, what have you done that was stupid and/or dangerous to aid an animal, pet or wild?

2

I was driving near the airpark in Scottsdale, when I saw a frantic woman on the other side of the median, running around in traffic. I pulled up next to the median, and rolled down my window and shouted to get her attention. She yelled “The babies, the babies!.” I got out, and found that she was trying to corral the baby Gambel’s Quails that the mother had lead into the street - and then found out that the curb was too high for them to get over. If you haven’t seen them, they are perhaps the cutest little birds on earth. So, I ran into traffic with her, and managed to keep the pissed-off drivers from running over them, while she got as many as she could back to the mother.

3

Probably not a thread winner, but I remember this vividly… it was dumb, not dangerous.

I grew up on a hobby farm, and at one point in my late teens my parents had chickens. One summer we started we began waking up to chickens having been mysteriously slaughtered inside the henhouse at night. We figured a weasel, so I went to the feed store after school one day and bought a hava-hart live trap. We set the trap on an evening that I would be home from school the next day, and went to to bed.

The next morning I woke up and went to check the trap. The chickens were squaking something fierce so I figured something had been caught. I had never seen a weasel up close before, so I was kind of excited. I opened the door to the coop and…

It was a skunk. In the trap. I slammed the door and backed away. Then I started pondering. I had two choices. 1) shoot it where it was, then taking the dead skunk down to the river to bury it, or 2) take the whole thing out alive, get it to the river somehow (we lived on the river), and release it. I chose option 2.

I finally devised a plan. I grabbed a big, probably 10’ x 10’ tarp, and held it up in front of me. I then opened the chicken coop door and s…l…o…w…l…y inched myself forward until I could drop the tarp over the trap. I then grabbed the trap and set it in a wheelbarrow. Moving as slow as I could I pushed it down to the river – about 600 yards from the henhouse, so it took me well past noon. When I got to the river’s edge where there were a bunch of brush thickets I mickey moused a mechanism to open the trap while I stood some distance away. I dont remember what it was, but I remember it involved some tie wire and a couple of rake handles ducktaped together. Now, this entire time I had not once caught even the slightest hint of skunk spray… no odor at all. I opened the trap – still under the tarp – and as soon as I saw the tarp move I dropped the handle and… like a damn moron, stood there to see if the critter actually crawled out from under the tarp. Hey, a live skunk! Exciting, right?

Yes, yes he did come out from under that tarp. And saw me standing there 10 feet away when I should’ve been a hundred yards away instead.

Did you know fresh, close-up skunk spray actually smells like strong garlic? It isn’t exactly pleasant but it isn’t barf-inducing horrible. Its only when it gets diluted a bit that it takes on that particularly rank skunk- reek.

The skunk having scurried off into the bushes no doubt laughing his ass off, I marched myself back up to the house, stripped nekkid next to the barn, and “bathed” in a garden hose using GoJo hand cleaner because that’s all I could find. By the second “bath” the garlic smell had been replaced by skunk reek. After half a dozen of those baths the stench had been knocked down enough that I could go into the house and take a full Silkwood with dish soap and hydrogen peroxide.

I ended up burning the jeans and t-shirt I was wearing as I never could get the smell out.

To this day my dad says I should’ve just shot the little bugger. But I did him (the skunk) a solid and let him live. He must’ve gotten the message, we didn’t lose any more chickens that year.

4

I’ve got a couple that happened where I used to work. Our building was in a corporate park with lots of woody areas and cats and kittens ended up there a lot. I was the cat wrangler every one came to when one had been spotted.

The first one also involves a raccoon. It managed to get in the building and feast on all the snacks folks left on their desks. A wildlife person came, found where it was getting in the building and set up a trap. This was on a Friday in hopes of catching it over the weekend. I knew there was a feral cat living in the woods and I was worried that the cat would go for the food and be trapped instead.

That night it started raining hard and was supposed to continue all weekend. I was so worried that the cat would be trapped and wet and scared. Around midnight I couldn’t stand it any longer. I drove to work, parked by the trap, shined my flashlight and there was the cat inside. I let him out and he ran off like a shot. It was only then I realized I was kind of out in the middle of nowhere at midnight and that was probably not a good idea. I got in the car, locked the doors and left. I went back on Sunday to reset the trap.

(The raccoon was not trapped and got back in the building one night later that week. One of my co-workers found it in her office. I wasn’t there when this happened but I heard it was pretty damn funny. She shut the door and called for help. The raccoon was caught in a net but not before it had shit all over her office. The story became an office legend. I never told anyone it was kind of my fault because of the cat thing. :grinning:)

The other time I had to rescue 5 kittens. They were only 6-8 weeks old. I managed to get 2 of them in some bushes but 3 others had crawled up inside the company van. We opened the hood and could see them but not get to them. I then got on my back and scooted under the van (in a dress mind you). With spotters from above directing me, I managed to get the kittens. This took some time and the van driver kept saying “I’ve got to GO!” “you have to hurry!”. I was so stressed and had kittens scratching me but there was no way I wasn’t getting them. Happy ending - the kittens all found homes.

(This story also has an addendum. It turns out there were 6 kittens. That night a co-worker drove 30 miles home. When she got there she heard meowing coming from her car. The kitten had gotten into the wheel well and she couldn’t get it out. She hoped the kitten would come out over night but it didn’t. The next day she drove to the dealer and they put the car on the lift and got the kitten. She kept the kitten and named it Lexus. :smile_cat:)

5

Once one of the dogs was at the dog park, and unknown to me, there was a small hole in the 6’ chain-link fence around the park. Across the street by the fence, in the clearing was a dead rabbit, and this dog loved her some dead things.

She was sniffing around the fence, and suddenly seemed to apparate to the other side of it. She was a really skinny dog who slipped through the hole that wasn’t visible. I didn’t know how she’d gotten through, but this was my husband’s precious baby, and I was at the park alone with all three of our dogs.

I ran for the fence, and vaulted over it. I didn’t think twice. I grabbed it, found a toe hold, and swung my other leg over like I was mounting a horse, and then just jumped to the bottom.

I have no idea how I did that. I didn’t know I could do that.

Anyway, I ran across the street, and was lucky I didn’t get hit, because I don’t remember looking for cars.

I pulled the dog off the dead rabbit she was rolling in, and carried her around the fence to the opening.

We had to leave at that point, because now precious really needed a bath.

I had some sore muscles the next day.

I still have no idea how I vaulted that fence. I’ve looked at it many times since, and I can’t believe I did that. I also can’t believe I didn’t really hurt myself doing it.

6

Ah, I love you guys. Lancia, aurora_maire, I’m cracking up! :slight_smile:

I would totally do something dumb and dangerous to save an animal, but the only one I can think of at the moment was a time when some lady’s chihuahua escaped from her in a busy parking lot. I was one of many strangers who chased it around between the cars until it was rescued.

7

This snake got all tangled up in the protective netting around my tomato plant. The whole time I was trying to free him he was trying to bight me. My wife kind of held his head down with a stick while I worked.
ETA: irs fine, I see it around the property from time to time.

[Album] imgur.com
8

My brother and sister-in-law had a White West Highland terrier named Chelsea. Once I was driving someplace with just me and her in the car. I had the driver’s side window open because it was summer, and she made her way to the front of the car and stood with her hind legs on my lap and her front paws on the windowsill as she stuck her nose out the window. I remember just how excited she was at the prospect of being able to do this. In retrospect, it was dangerous, if I had to make a sudden stop or if the airbag went off. But neither occurred and it was amazing watching her be so excited.

9

I grew up near the Severn River in Maryland (more of an estuary than a “river.”) It occasionally would partially freeze over in the winter, but generally pretty thin, especially towards the middle.

One day, I was around 15 years old, while walking my dog along the shore we noticed a dog out on the ice, pretty far out. Naturally, he fell through and was unable to get back up. He was surrounded by ice, but there was no way he could ever save himself. Probably 200 yards from shore.

I tied my dog’s leash to a tree and headed out onto the ice (without a real plan). The ice was cracking and groaning beneath me, thinning as I ventured further from sure. I dog was extremely panicked. There’s no way I was going to get to him. Some guy saw me out there and started yelling at me to return to shore. I guess that made it finally sink in that I was doing something incredibly dangerous and I turned back. The dog kept fighting for his life for what seemed like a really long time. He eventually went below the surface. I hugged my dog and had a good cry.

10

How awful for you, Procrustus. I’m sorry you had to go through that. I’m glad the guy was there, and you were willing to listen to reason over emotion.

My own experiences are nowhere near as dangerous to life and limb as that. Picked up a really thick black snake with a pair of brooms, to get it out of my apartment complex’s driveway area. Sorry I took away your warm spot, big fella. Crossed a busy street to leash an obviously lost Labrador. Shoelaces work well if you have nothing else. Thank God its owner chipped it. It had managed to escape after getting a bath, or something similar. The owner was grateful.

Charged an opossum with an axe. I was a lot younger. My family had a pair of socialized young cats that weren’t allowed inside. They were fed outside and eventually, the leftover food attracted an opposum. None of us thought this through. Anyway, we came home one night, saw the opossum at said food bowl, hissing at the pair of cowering cats. I saw the red mist, jumped out of the backseat, ran into the garage, came out with an ax, and the opossum was still there.

Hanging out at the food dish. Oblivious to the car, headlights, two other people, and one lunatic teenager charging it with an ax. I guess it was claiming the dish and surrounding territory for Spain or something. The cats sensibly fled. The opposum stayed. Later I dumped what was left of it into an adjoining vacant lot. “Don’t stink up my trash can!”

Dumb, dumb, dumb. What the (expletive deleted) was I thinking?! The cats ended up being hit by cars less than a year later. Outside cats and adjacent major highways don’t mix. I learned from it, though, and have treated the pets in my own home much better.

11

As I sat and lazed by the the lakeside fishing waiting for a bite, I gazed upon the ground and noticed a big colorful looking caterpillar being mobbed by small ants. They were all over it and it was writhing around. I felt sorry for it, so I picked it up, and while dunking it in the lake I flicked off all the ants, hoping most of the bastards would drown in the process. I then found some dry ground a few feet away and sent the caterpillar on its way.

The rest of the day I wondered and hoped he didn’t run into more ants that day.

12

We do not always think too hard in those circumstances. Here is a woman running into an intersection to save a kitten. And here is a guy running onto the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to rescue a terrified dog; I doubt anybody in this thread will be topping that. Worst thing I’ve done is climb a tree to get a cat off the roof.

13

This guy wins the thread.
This still gives me nightmares.

14

This one is fairly tame. My brother and I would catch lizards and snakes from the back yard and keep them as pets and observe them for a while in a home-made terrarium-like tank (an old 10-gallon fish tank) before returning them to the wild. We would catch grasshoppers for them as food (hey, all-natural, locally-sourced).

Anyway, one day we came home from school and went to my brother’s room to check out the striped racer snake we had recently captured, only to find the tank empty, and the lid ajar. Evidently, he was long/tall enuf and strong enuf to lift the lid off the tank. We knew mom would flip-out so we searched the house up and down for a couple hours, and no snake. Mom came home from work and we had to tell her the snake was missing - she yelled at us to find it and waited out in the back yard.

The search continued for a while, then we walked down the hall to my brother’s room, nearly defeated, and lo and behold, there was the snake peering out from under the closed door, about 6-8 inches tall (the rest of him, about another 12 inches, behind the door). We cornered and captured him and released him out back, so mom could return inside.

No more catch and release reptiles for us after that.

15

After my siblings and I left the nest by parents sold everything, bought a farm, and started raising cattle. My wife and I eventually moved closer to them to stay in touch and at least once a year we would help them medicate the cattle to avoid parasites, etc. This involved herding all of the cattle into a pen then shooing them through a tunnel of panels into a “squeeze shoot” and then bringing down a steel arm on their neck to stop their head from thrashing.

For the cows this was a fairly routine procedure. But the bulls were a different story: 2000lbs of pissed off muscle thrashing around while the entire device seemed about to explode. Once trapped the bulls would continue to whip their heads around until the steel arm was lowered (by hand, naturally) and their heads “caught.”

To make it even more dangerous, the steel head-catching bar moved freely on the way down until it was locked in place. A single whip of the head would rip the bar out of the hand of the “head catcher” assigned to the task and send it flying upward with massive force behind it. I had several close calls with this bar narrowly missing my body/head.

The video below shows a much safer setup but you get the idea:

16

Yup. I wasn’t going to mention it, if anyone else hadn’t. Didn’t even need to click on the link to know that was what you meant.

It’s an absolutely horrible story. I hugged my dog after I read it the first time, and got really monomaniacal about the car windows being up and leashes/collars being completely secure.

Frankly, I’d have tried to shoot the dog in that situation. Anything to make it stop suffering. Making sure no one was downrange of the shot, of course.

Y’all have been warned before clicking on that link.

17

Thanks. Not clicking.

18

Not unless he posts in this thread. That seems unlikely, considering.

19

On one of the family properties during shearing middle of summer.

Moolpa is a sizable run, about 70,00ha (180,000 acres) and during shearing it’s all hands on deck plus some. My task was the paddock work ie bringing mobs in for shearing, droving the shorn mobs back.

Was mustering one of the back blocks, probably 30km (18 miles) from the shearing shed and about that far from anybody else.

There would have been about 2,000 in the mob which I found ok but was checking the whole paddock to make sure I had them all.

Drove up to one of the dams used for stock water. It had almost dried up. One sheep had gone in to get to a pool of water remaining in the middle. They’d broken through the mud crust and now were hopelessly stuck.

There’s no real option here. I’ve got to get it out.
Stripped down to my shorts. Got a light rope. Tied it off to the vehicle.
Waded in with the intention of getting the rope round it’s neck and then slowly pull it out from the bank.

The sheep was about 10m from the edge and had cut a path through the crust a bit like an icebreaker. I wallowed out along that pathway. The animal was about 10m in and the mud was about a waist deep.

The problem was as I got closer the animal panicked and tried to get away. So by the time I reached it I was 15m from the edge. The mud was now up to my chest and I couldn’t touch the bottom.

Caught it, put a loop around it’s neck, turned it around. There was one hairy moment when in fright it lurched at me to escape and almost pushed me under.

At this point in time nobody on the property is going to miss me back at the shed for a least a couple of hours. If they started to look it’d be another couple of hours at best to find me. Its just me and this bloody sheep.

Slowly pulled it out by hand. Then had to get 25kg of exhausted but still unco-operative sheep plus 40kgs of mud onto the ute. Couldn’t lift it. Had to dig a ramp. Eventually dragged the animal onto the back of the ute.

At this stage I would have looked a passable resemblance of an Holosa mud-man

Then drove back to the shed. Father gave me a rather curious look but said not a word then or since.

Had to take the sheep to a full dam by the shearing shed to wash the mud out of it’s fleece. That took a while and the sheep wasn’t impressed at my efforts. Was tempted to drown it a couple of times. Got myself clean at the same time.

Shearers will not shear wet or even slightly damp sheep. So had to put the sheep in a pen by itself for two days to let it dry out. Fed and watered it.

When it was shorn the fleece structure was disrupted by the washing so the classer put it in the pieces bin rather than fleece lines, which drops it’s value by about 50%.

The animal went back with the rest of the 4yo classed wethers.
No idea what happened to it. Just life on a farm.

20

Well, not at all dangerous or anything, but my grandkids and I saved a lizard last summer. My hummingbird feeder had leaked some of the sugary syrup onto the hot concrete of the patio and a lizard was actually stuck to it. We got some water right away and washed away the syrup and the lizard ran off before he roasted. It wouldn’t have lasted too much longer, so that was nice and the fact that I had inadvertently caused the issue in the first place was a lesson for all of us.