Here's a partial list of things that have scared Hannah on our walks in the last month or so. She has either jumped back into my legs or stopped and stared with her tail tucked.
1. A half-full cup of red liquid in a clear plastic McDonald's cup that was tucked in some bushes. (Maybe the smell was bad?)
2. A small landscaping rock that was on the sidewalk. (I mean, it was an unexpected "obstacle" on the sidewalk.)
3. This car. (In her defense, this is the same yard where she once freaked out about a black trash bag on the curb. I touched the bag with my foot to show her it wasn't scary and tried to get her to touch it with her paw. She was NOT having it. A guy comes around the corner and tells me there is a deer carcass in that bag. So. This car might be a legitimate crime scene.)
4. A hummingbird. (It did just sort of come out of nowhere and buzz her. But it's tiny?)
5. This flower. (I cannot defend this one.)
6. Our trail cam. We have a bit of a raccoon problem in our yard. They're using the side of our garage and part of our backyard as a toilet and it's sort of gross. We put up a trail cam to see if they were living in our garage or shed and my husband kept moving the camera. One day he just put in in the driveway facing our shed and Hannah freaked out. HOW DARE IT BE IN HER DRIVEWAY?
Anyway, we've learned that there are a lot of cats in our yard at night, the raccoons use it as a highway to wherever they are going at night, and that our dog cannot handle change in her yard.
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Has anything new taken you by surprise recently? Do you handle it better than Hannah?
Awww, Hannah. The world is a scary place!
ReplyDeleteIs a rock on a sidewalk scary, Nicole? Really? Maybe you should have been Hannah's human.
DeleteWhat a strange beast she is.
ReplyDeleteYeah. I can't defend her. She's a little weirdo.
DeleteHannah is unique and quirky! She has her reasons for being scared of these things- we're just don't understand it with our limited senses. She probably is smelling all sorts of things we can't. The flower has me baffled though.
ReplyDeleteMaybe another animal peed on that flower? I mean, there has to be a reason. I'm not doubting her! I'm just a confused human.
DeleteA DEER CARCASS????? that's what I really want to know about!
ReplyDeleteHannah is a creature of habit, I guess. I feel you, Hannah. So am I.
I don't handle surprises well. My work colleagues say I have a terrible poker face.
Yeah, I thought I blogged about this, but I can't find it, so maybe I didn't. Hunting is a thing here in the rural Midwest. I never thought about people who butcher and prepare their own meat and what they do with the stuff they don't use, but I guess the answer is that they put it in a black plastic bag and sit it out by the curb? The guy was really amused by me trying to tell Hannah to touch it. Hannah must have thought I was a real idiot.
DeleteI mean, some of those are justifiable. Perhaps you thought she was scared of the rock and the flower, but there was something weird that her super sensitive nose picked up. Trust her, she’ll keep you safe. #teamhannah
ReplyDeleteThings that freaked Mulder out:
A person carrying an open umbrella
A fire hydrant
A person doing tai chi in a parklet
A person doing squats in a parklet
Ted walking up the stairs backwards with a creepy smile on his face (he was doing this to get a rise out of Mulder, so well done I guess)
A toddler
The (very handsome) dog with no smell in our bedroom (aka, the mirror) - to be fair, this was just the day we first brought him home
I don't doubt her at all. I'm positive it's something I can't smell or see. It's just that she handles any change so POORLY.
DeleteOh, Mulder. It's so good to know Hannah isn't alone in her freaking out over completely normal things. Why are people doing such weird things in the parklet anyway?!
Awww, poor sweet Hannah! I wonder if she’s having vision problems? Who knows. The cup of red liquid does sound ominous. We’re having some raccoon trouble here too. They’re so cute, but they love to break open bags of grain and make a mess. And they can be fiercely mean when cornered. Our dog won’t even try to chase them away.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much raccoon scat in our yard. *sigh* I keep telling myself that they have to live someplace, too. And it's true. I feel a bit NIMBYish though that I wish it would be somewhere else!
DeleteOh Hannah. I laughed at ‘this flower.’ Well I did come across a coyote on my run this morning. He was crossing the street but had I arrived there a minute earlier and we would’ve bumped into one another. I e also beeen unsettled yo see enormous carpenter ants in the family room. A few a day. Why? Where are they coming from? Well I paid an insane amount to the exterminator and if I do not see another large black ant in my house, then that amount will no longer bother me.
ReplyDeleteI dunno...that flower is a bit scary...
ReplyDeleteI would love to put a trail cam in our backyard. It's crazy to think that, with all the wildlife we see during the day, there's probably a ton more we don't know about overnight.
Aw, Hannah is as much of a wimp as my dog, Trixie. My pup jumps excitedly about going out but is terrified of everything outside. She came to us as well cared for puppy and its just in her nature to be skittish. Trixie doesn't like to go much past our yard. Her impulse is to pull HARD towards home when she freaks out about other dogs barking, other people walking, birds, rain, trucks, Christmas lights, and the list goes on. Pretty much every walk is trying to keep her walking calmly and controlling her pulling.
ReplyDelete