If that happened to me, kayaker, you would not be reading about it here as I would be DEAD. Also, you might have warned those of us with snake phobia about that picture. Since you didn’t, I am! SNAKE!
Actually, anything falling on me when I walk out of my house is startling. I’m not afraid of snakes, but wow, what a fright.
And speaking of snakes, I got my gf over her snake phobia to the point where she was able to catch and later release this one.
ETA: /snakes
I’m not a snake fan, but that one’s kinda pretty. What kind of snake is it?
A striped startler. Known for falling out of trees unexpectedly.
You got me. 
I Googled it and got:
Gorgeous snake and I bet there aren’t many mice around!
A cop and former friend just put up in he can f those whinig posts about how Trump is mistreated. There goes the one good cop I thought I knew. And he also pretends to be a Christian. Given Trump’s support of Nazis, I worry that the black people who have started finally settling here will not get justice.
And I pit myself for being too chicken lto leave up my comment about him going to hell for being a Trump worshipper.
Garter snake, no big deal.
Huh?
You’re forgiven. I wouldn’t want a cop mad at me, especially telling him he’s going to hell. And it’s not like that comment was so articulate that it’d change his mind…
Dear friend,
I’ve not seen much of you lately, so it was nice to see you and the kids at my barbecue. You brought a guy I’d not met before. Cool, he seemed pretty nice. Plus his kid. Fine; I was expecting you to show up with two small children, three isn’t much of a difference in catering or anything. He also brought a dog. Um. It would have been quite nice if you’d asked about that, to be honest.
In fact, properly speaking, the site we were at doesn’t actually allow off leash dogs, and it is sort of my problem if my guests break the rules.
Besides, I like dogs, and he’s a nice dog, but he is something of an opportunist, so no-one could put a plate or food anywhere but on the rather full table without it being snaffled. It meant someone had to properly guard the barbecue the whole time, as though the kids are old enough to understand ‘Do not play near the burny thing’, this was somewhat lost on the dog, given the presence of chicken.
I know I didn’t say ‘no dogs’, but I didn’t invite anyone who has a dog, so it was one of those things that didn’t really occur to me.
I think flamethrowers are pretty awesome too, but I wouldn’t expect anyone to show up with one unexpectedly to a party.
If your guest had any foresight he would’ve kept the dog leashed and by his side.
Given that it was an outdoor venue, most dog lovers will take it to mean that dogs are automatically invited if the host doesn’t say anything about it :shrug:
Wow. It would never occur to me that people would just bring dogs along uninvited. Or extra people, for that matter. Whatever happened to checking with the hostess?
Like I said, I didn’t say anything about it because no-one who was invited had a dog. A guest invited their own guest, who I’d never met before, who brought his dog.
Said friend knows me well enough to know extra people would be welcome, but I had no reason to suspect the possibility of dog.
We had two dogs when I was little; it would never have occurred to my parents to show up anywhere without checking that was OK, indoor or outdoor. Are there any other animals it’s the host’s responsibility to check for? Do I need to specify ‘No goats or horses’ (which are also banned on that site) next time, just in case someone recently acquired one?
I’ve never seen anybody show up to a party with an animal who didn’t belong to the genus “homo”, without previously clearing it with the host.
I am so sick of water right now. We don’t have water in our home, but its everywhere else. I’m honestly thinking that Reno might be a nice place to live. You never hear of major floods or fires or anything like that happening to Reno.
On the first world problem side, the GreaseMonkey script for the old SDMB smilies seems to have stopped working after the most recent Firefox update. It is enabled. 
Yabbut you always have to watch out for some *basso profundo *asshole with a gun and a bucket list…
Most people, including us, would ask beforehand.
However, I’ve known – and have witnessed – people bringing their dogs to a venue without asking simply because “it’s outside. I don’t want to leave the dog at home by itself and I can’t afford to have somebody dog sit or bring the dog to daycare.”
We ran into this dilemma once a few years ago where a friend was having an outdoor party. Our normal go-to sitter was unavailable, daycare would close before we’d be returning, and since we didn’t know how long we’d be, we didn’t want to leave Jack at home by himself. We contacted the host who himself had no issues with us bringing Jack, but some of his guests didn’t like dogs. Jack ended up hanging out in the car (windows open, of course) and we brought him out to stretch his legs/give water/give treats every so often. We do the same whenever we visit relatives who are allergic.
Needless to say if it’s summer you can’t leave any kind of animal by itself in a vehicle. Maybe that’s what happened with the OP’s guest?
But yeah, the guest should’ve contacted the host beforehand. Absolutely.
The more we delve into the etiquette of bringing dogs to outdoor events, the more I appreciate my cat.
And the more I appreciate being able to leave my dog’s side for a couple of hours.
Are these people actually saying to themselves “A party? Oh, whatever shall I do? If I’m not within ten feet of my dog for an afternoon s/he will…” what? Shred the couch? Howl like a coyote? Clean out the fridge? Poop in the dishwasher? Find a way into the liquor cabinet?
We leave our dogs home when we’re at work. We just make sure they’re outside for a while beforehand… and of course, we say “Bye, be good boys, and stay out of the liquor cabinet.”