RE: Ever been attacked by an animal?
A few times…
When I was a kid, there was a dog (lab/collie mix, I think) that liked to nip at my heels when I rode my bike on the street in front of its house. After it got a hold of me once and actually drew a little bit of blood (not serious blood; just enough to tick me off), I finally gave it a “polo kick” and sent it flying. He never bothered me after that.
Also had a vicious black lab (I know, it’s an oxymoron, but I think this dog was seriously abused) attack my leg on a bridge over a creek. When he stepped back and charged in again, I gave him a swift kick off the bridge and into the creek. He never bothered me after that.
When I was in jr. high, a policeman neighbor of mine had raised a timber wolf from a pup. It was a really nice, friendly dog and he let me and my best friend play with it while it was chained up to a tree (long chain). I knew the officer from the police boys club, where we both worked out, and he was a big man (bench pressed 375 olympic free weight). He would play wrestle with the wolf (it was about 15 months old at this time) and the wolf would playfully knaw at his wrists while they were wrestling. Anyways, my friend and I were playing with it while he was at the boys club (which was OK with him), throwing balls, which the wolf would catch. Well, one ball got by him and he twisted around and ran after it. When he got to the end of his chain, he snapped it like it wasn’t there. Suddenly, he realizes he’s free and decides to go explore the woods in our neighborhood. We chased him all around for about an hour and a half. I went to a neighbor’s house and borrowed a rope while my friend kept tabs on the wolf. He eventually decided to go back home and lay down near where he was usually tied up. Then came the fun part: trying to tie him back up again! He didn’t really want to be tied up. He also seemed to think we were trying to wrestle him and kept nipping at my wrists. We eventually got him tied back up again and I called the boys club and told officer Hayes what had happened. So, not really an attack, but it seemed pretty dicey at the time to wrestle a timber wolf.
Last year, while I was in the stand, I had two similar strange encounters in the same day. I was set up in my favorite morning spot and had a red tailed hawk dive at me. I’m not sure if it was attacking, but it flew about 3 feet directly underneath my stand so close I could’ve stepped out onto its back. That afternoon I moved my stand to a new evening spot. About an hour before shooting light ran out, the same thing happened, except this wasn’t a red tailed hawk. Not sure what kind, but it didn’t have the red tail, but definitely had the distinctive hawk profile.
My sister had a funny “attack” episode when she was about 3 years old. She was playing in the snow in the stand of trees between our house and the house of our next door neighbor while my parents had some friends over inside. A neighborhood Saint Bernard sauntered over into our yard (no one enforced the leash laws in our neighborhood and almost no one had fences). She got scared of the dog, which I am sure seemed gigantic to a three year old girl, and fell down in the snow running from it. The dog, trying to be helpful, came over and started licking her, which of course caused her to become scared witless and begin to cry. The dog, ever trying to be helpful, licked her more the more she cried. Finally, our next door neighbor (a great guy), who was outside in his yard, heard my sister crying and came and “rescued” her. He brought her, slimed from head to toe, to our front door and told my parents, “I think your daughter needs you.” She was crying so hard, she could barely talk, saying, “Doggy try to EAT me!”