Crazy thing just occurred when I took my dog out....

[aquaman]

An owl, with at least a ten foot wing span, tried to take out my dog. My dog is a Lab mix so he is big, brave owl. My dog is still freaked. Yes, I live in the woods.

[philosophie_en_rose]

1. Dogs are food in the country.

I have little dogs, so I have to watch out for eagles, coyotes, owls, big cats, other dogs, and raccoons.

[aquaman]

5. I would not take my little dog.......

a Shih Tzu out this time of night but thought I was safe with my big one. It was cool, despite the trauma that my dog now suffers.

[janedoe]

8. Cat's are food int the country, too.

I go backpacking with my cat. I've learned to watch for turkey buzzards when we come to rock outcrops at the top of a cliff. We had a close call.

[philosophie_en_rose]

15. Wildlife is growing accustomed to people.

Either that or I'm just not very intimidating.

[DELUSIONAL]

27. Now that I want to see -- a backpacking CAT!!

I get amazed people staring at my cat who walks on a leash and who might like to do some hiking.

But a backpacking Cat!! Photos . . . please.

And welcome cat lover -- to DU.

[janedoe]

38. He doesn't carry a pack.

Carrying himself is enough.

The main thing to teach him was that you must walk at a steady pace. He got the choice to walk or ride (top of the pack).

I don't know how to post pictures here.

[DELUSIONAL]

41. I figured that you were packing the cat

I have a cat that walks on a leash ..

Posting photos -- many people here use

http://photobucket.com/

Go there set up an account -- upload a photo (follow the instructions for uploading photos) and then once the photo in on photobucket -- you will get a list of ways to post your photo here.

of the three choices -- post the URL of the photo you want to appear on DU

Here's a photo of my hiking cat . . . he's in the house resting in this photo.

[janedoe]

45. Thanks. I followed your directions.

Here he is, watching the turkey buzzards. I realized what he was looking at, shortly after I took the picture.



Ooops. Sorry the pic is so big.

[DELUSIONAL]

46. It loaded nicely -- even on my dial up

I believe that photo bucket.com reduces the size.

Anyway he looks like my other cat -- who doesn't walk on a leash. Tuffie acts more like an ANCHOR when I have him on a leash.

[janedoe]

47. Leash tricks

Tug the leash, then release. You show them which way you want them to move, but then let them think it's their choice.

Here are more pics of the old guy:


The backpacking guy in the picture died of old age (at 20), a little over a year ago. I now have two newer ones. They took to the leash almost immediately -- now that I knew the trick.

Another trick is that the leash means they get to go out to fun places. (They never get to run loose.) So, the leash is a good thing.

[gardenista]

2. We had an owl that constantly buzzed our shepherd & malamute when

we lived on a farm. He buzzed us, too. He would dance around on our heads and then fly off. He also used to sit on the trellis right outside our kitchen door and hoot at us when we were cooking dinner. Would follow us around the house from room to room sitting on the window sills as we turned lights on and off. Finally one day he came into our kitchen and perched on our pressure cooker, up on the tippy-top shelf and held court in our house until we finally realized he had been rehabilitated by a woman who lived down the street, and was bonded to humans. He just wanted to hang out.

Anyhow, used to freak out the dogs.

[RummyTheDummy]

3. Can someone answer this question?

I have a lab mix. we let him out. he has a weird dead fish odor about him for a moment or too after he comes in. do dogs secrete something in their skin to cause that?

[evlbstrd]

9. Dogs love things that stink.

I had a dog that took off for a few weeks about twenty-five years ago. He came back covered in I still don't know what, and it stank!

[RummyTheDummy]

11. He loves hand lotion

I put it on and he goes nuts trying to lick my hands.

[evlbstrd]

18. Now, that's interesting.

Does your hand lotion stink?

[RummyTheDummy]

20. No...i dont think so.

Just regular old hand lotion. i think its generic..but it doesnt stink. he just loves it. goes crazy. i think he would prefer it over a t-bone.

[evlbstrd]

21. Depending on the cost of lotion vs. a T-bone,

it looks you're ahead!
My current dog would rather eat the cat's food. Just because we feed the cat.

[RummyTheDummy]

22. Get this...

He loves cat food as well. we try to put it up where he cant get to it but the cat can..he gets to it. makes his breath stink worse than normal.

[evlbstrd]

23. Sounds typical.

Our dog waits for us to go to sleep, though. She'll always eat cat food before she eats hers.
What is it with dogs? They have no self esteem, they're incredibly jealous and needy. Shit, sounds like my ex.

[RummyTheDummy]

24. LMAO

Yes they are jealous and needy. they really are a lot like people arent they. he also freaks out in thunderstorms and if the wife and i ever argue he leaves the room. he also gets boners at odd times.

[evlbstrd]

26. Oooh, the joy of male dogs.

Fortunately, my dog is a female. But she hates storms and fireworks. She's a big dog, but thinks she little again in those situations. She wants to climb into my lap and hide.

[RummyTheDummy]

28. I wish mine climbed up in my lap

That's sweet. he just pants a lot, trembles and tries to crawl under our bed. the vet said there's not a lot you can do. and they recommended we didnt sedate him during storms. its just hard to watch him go through that. we got him from a shelter and we think he may have had some bad experiences with storms while he was a stray. my wife thinks lighting struck near him.

[evlbstrd]

30. I got my girl as a little pup.

She and her brother had been horribly abused. Her brother is with my best friend, and they are both very old now. They share a lot of behaviors. But they are both very good dogs. Show your pup as much love as you can. I make fun of my dog, but I love her very much.

[RummyTheDummy]

34. Yep, in the end that's the best medicine

BTW, here's a pic of my boy....just after being woken up from one of his 8 daily naps.






http://community.webshots.com/scripts/editPhotos.fcgi?action=showMyPhoto&albumID=390720630&photoID=390724664&security=xboiSO

[evlbstrd]

35. Your pic didn't come through.

But my girl spends all of her spare time sleeping, too.

[Dervill Crow]

43. LOL - my dog reminds me to feed the cats every single morning.

She likes to have a mouthful of cat food to cleanse the palate before partaking of her own breakfast.

Ick.

[erinlough]

12. This is gross but true

My niece has a golden and she does the same thing, but for longer than a minute or two. When I took care of her I called my niece after a day when I couldn't stand it anymore. She said the vet told her that dogs have anal glands that secrete that odor and some (probably not yours) need to have the glands expressed manually. I asked for the name of her vet...I will watch the dog, but I'm not expressing any dogs anal glands.

[RummyTheDummy]

17. Yeah i know about the glands...

But i never thought that was the cause until now. you learn something everyday. i will NOT express his glands.

[MnFats]

19. had to have our miniature schnauzer's glands 'expressed.'

it was expensive, but he was in pain.
Mrs. MnFats took him to the vet, who drew off a shitload of fluid that she said was the foulest-smelling substance she'd ever, ever had a whiff of. Both her and the vet were ready to boot.
but little Sam was grateful....

[Orsino]

39. Causes a lot of barkage...

...at the vet's. Since the glands are used to send messages between doggies, expressing them is the equivalent of standing up in a bar and yelling, "HEY! HEY! HEY!"

[Dervill Crow]

44. Those must be some powerful glands, cuz my dog's stinky all over.

Eeew. I have to check this out with my daughter, the pit bull terrier expert. I guess APBTS are particularly susceptible, and her girls have required the "butt squeeze" procedure at the vet more than once. She never mentioned to me that the stinky cold dog phenomenon was related.

:shrug:

[aquaman]

13. Our lab mix has the same smell...

The Vet said that it was his anal glands, poor thing.

[murielm99]

31. I had a dog about twenty years ago who would do that.

She was a lab/spaniel mix. She come back with that smell especially after a bath. I finally followed her, and discovered that she was rolling in all the dead leaves and trash in the culvert. Phew!

[murielm99]

32. I had a dog about twenty years ago who would do that.

She was a lab/spaniel mix. She come back with that smell especially after a bath. I finally followed her, and discovered that she was rolling in all the dead leaves and trash in the culvert. Phew!

[Dervill Crow]

42. I think that must be it.

I've noticed that too, particularly when it's very cold or very hot outside. It happens even when she doesn't been rolling in any type of "doggy perfume." As you said, it's just stinky for a few minutes and then back to regular dog smell.

[enigmatic]

4. Damn, bro...

That must have been freaky; glad your dog is ok..

[Tallison]

6. Owls can't get that big, can they? Sure it was an owl?

[aquaman]

10. Oh yeah,

When I was a kid there was an owl that was on our property that appeared to be injured and it was, not sure what what was wrong with it, but it eventually took off and I was floored with the wing span.

[Tallison]

14. Where the hell do you live, Mordor?

[aquaman]

16. South Carolina,

Same as Mordor, quite evil it is.

[Tsiyu]

7. That's nothing

I'm sleeping on the couch tonight because there's a spider as big as my car in my bathroom.

Ahhh, good old country livin.' Keeps the blood flowing, for sure.
Hope your baby doesn't need long term therapy!;)

[hfojvt]

25. is it really that big, or your car that small?

My sister's house is not really in the country, it is a bare subdivision of a little village. One morning there was a huge spider in the shower - a big hairy thing, about the size of a fifty cent piece. I thought to myself, that cannot be real, it is a plastic spider somebody put there to play a joke on me. But I picked up the shampoo bottle and crunched it anyway. It was quite real.

That is a big owl too, but "taking out a lab?" That's crazy. A lab is a big dog. I would think that I would be easier to take out than a lab.

That sorta bugged me to, when I saw the first part of Bambi. The animals all playing together in the forest - the wise avuncular owl talking to the baby rabbits. I was thinking "in the real world owls eat rabbits".

[Tsiyu]

37. It's a wolf spider the kids say

and yeah, I did exaggerate jess a little ;)

I went to get some laundry to wash from the laundry basket on the floor ( it's piled up about twice the height of the basket and I wanted to mop the floor without any of it spilling.) When I reached for the first layer of clothes, there he was, hiding.

I have no fear of spiders normally. I don't kill the little ones around the house because they are great predators, but geez, this guy was at least 4 inches long leg to leg, and fat- looked almost like a tarantula. I have to face him this moring but I need more coffeee first. I sure wasn't sleeping in my room knowing he or she might decide to visit me while I slumber. Yikes!

[BikeWriter]

29. Maybe he was after you!

[HEyHEY]

33. Ten foot span?

Live next to a nuclear power plant?

[Rhiannon12866]

36. Yikes!

I've heard of this, and it scares me, since my little guy weighs eight lbs. And I've heard owls! (I live right next to the woods.) But a dog as big as a lab?! I'd go out armed, next time, like with a baseball bat! Poor pup!
:scared:

[Ikonoklast]

40. The owl is only doing what is its' nature

and to swing at one with a baseball bat may be a criminal offense as many raptor species are protected by law. Not advisable.

[Rhiannon12866]

Self-delete. Double post. n/t

[Rhiannon12866]

48. I have nothing against raptors.

At the NC Nature Center, the hawks are my particular favorites. But if anything tried to carry off one of my dogs, I'd use any means at my disposal to protect them.