Worst Animal Experiences

[L. Jay Echoes]

What's the worst encounter you ever had with an animal?

I had mine this morning. These two geese like to stalk me and charge me, and just as I was getting into my car, it actually got a hold of my pant leg. I kicked it in the chest. I can't leave my apartment without at least hearing those god-forsaken things honking their fool heads off.

[Michen_S]

When I was just a kid, I once got stung by a bumblebee.

It hurt.

[L. Jay Echoes]

Oh shoot, I've only been stung like, four times in my life. The last time was only six months ago. Yellow jackets. They'd invaded the milking room drawer and built a next. My landlady had to plant a chlorine bomb (or some insecticide) in there.

[Michen_S]

Well, in my case the bumblebee just stung me because it crawled into my neck, and that tickled. So naturally, my reflexes caused it to feel threatened.

Besides that I got lucky in that animals aren't very likely to attack me. The only other animals I have really had trouble with are flies, mosquitos and wasps. You know, the most common problem animals of this climate.

[Jenac Azaela]

I've been stung once on the neck by a wasp.
But while it was the worst single instance I've had, I kinda want to pull in certain dogs as the most influencial thing. Where I grew up, more or less all the neighbours had dogs, and they either approached you rapidly without permission or barked a lot. And being a small child, I did not particularly enjoy walking past this kind of dogs, and it's kinda stuck with me. I'm not AFRAID of dogs in the most common sense of the word, but I'm uneasy around them if they run towards me.

[Cheza]

When I was a very tiny tinierwoof, we had this one neighbour with a German Shepherd.
One day as we were coming back from the store, as I was happily skipping ahead, the dog was loose and it decided to start growling at me.
My mother had her hands full and the neighbour just didn't give a crap.
Thankfully, it was all growl and no bite, and I was so tiny I don't even remember the thing myself, altho it probably did mark the start of my fear of dogs.

After that, we had another neighbour with several dogs, one of which was the stereotypical Doberman with cropped ears and a docked tails.
It was really badly behaved too and they'd probably only gotten it for the coolness-factor of it.
They'd let it outside into a small fenced in area in the back yard where it'd just bark and growl at anything and everyone.
Eventually, it had to be put down as it kept biting its owners.

My grandparents also had a neighbour who seemed to enjoy collecting dogs of this one small-ish breed.
She had like... Half a million of them. And  she'd just let them out in her back yard where they'd instantly be running along the fence barking and yapping if me and my brother were trying to play outside.
Given my earlier experiences with dogs, I never felt comfortable outside as I was just expecting those things to manage to break out.
And for good reason too, as they had in the past, and then one of them bit my grandmother.
(Another time, a woman who'd been out for a stroll in the area had gotten bit by one of them too, and because the owner either wasn't at home or didn't care, she came knocking at my grandparents door asking to borrow a phone.)

Another neighbour had two huskies and a Schipperke.
The huskies were kept outside in a small pen and the Schipperke would roam around on the deck of the house.
True to crap owner fashion, the dogs got loose on several occasions, and at this stage, I was already terrified of dogs in general.
I ran from the huskies on at least two separate occasions, and once, from the Schipperke.
I was walking back from my school bus stop when the thing came running, and it was terrifying enough in my head to warrant throwing my school bag and jacket.
Much to the amusement of my mom, who still likes to bring up this story and laugh at it.

I still don't feel particularly comfortable around dogs, but I dunno if I'd feel the need to panic and flee in terror from a dog smaller than a house cat these days.

[Armalite_]

Probably getting stung in the face by a yellow jacket wasp when I was a kid. That was fun. But to be fair it was because I chucked a massive brick at the nest and my friends and I took off sprinting. Those things are pretty fast, taught me to not use bricks and never look back when running from something or lots of things.

Otherwise it was getting chased by a raging goose that lived near the sidewalk when I was also very young before my friend's dad came running and Spartan kicked it square in the chest. It didn't bother us anymore after that.

[Brisky]

I've luckily never really had awfull experiences with animals.

The scariest one is probably this time when I got charged by a Highlander in the woods.

Now, instead of running (what a sensible person would do) I sorta took on a "Don't gimme that shit" posture, whilst getting ready to dodge, but this surprisingly worked really well as the highlander just stopped not much more than a meter away from me.

So, yeah, I got off unscaved and didn't even really break a sweat. But trust me, watching one of those bois charge straight for you is not a pleasant sight.

[Jenac Azaela]

Otherwise it was getting chased by a raging goose that lived near the sidewalk when I was also very young before my friend's dad came running and Spartan kicked it square in the chest. It didn't bother us anymore after that.

Sounds like the swan in my neighbouring town that harrassed people and (I think) dragged a kid into a river. Was so much media coverage and discussion about whether to put it down or relocate it. RIP Havnesjefen ("Harbour Chief")

[Arval]

so far, nothing really major for me either - other than occasional nip from ants
been very close...


when I was young, living in Mexico, about to head from where I was in an upstairs room was going downstairs for food, putting my hands on a wall for support, I almost put my right hand on a scorpion
on a different occasion, also in Mexico - going to the restroom, I almost stepped on another scorpion




about 8 years ago, my uncle did get bit by a poisonous spider, that left him numb for couple hours on his right elbow

[John Red Beard]

Geese are serious a-holes. Luckily I've never had a close encounter with one.

When I was a kid, I was a bee sting magnet. I must have gotten stung half-a-dozen times, to the point that whenever we were going to spend time outdoors, my mom would bring a small container of meat tenderizer, which supposedly is good to rub on bee stings. (I don't know if it really is).

The worst one was when a bee landed on my face and stung my on the eyelid, partly because it hurt like heck, and partly because it sat there for a while before stinging, letting me stew in my fear before butt-stabbing me in the eye.

The worst though, was when I got bitten on the leg by a golden retriever. Not much story to tell. It was tied up to a pay phone that I needed to use (this was before cell phones were very common). It looked friendly enough, so I approached, and it just bit me. Left a little fang hole in my thigh.