Dumb Things I Have Done (A Play-Along Game)
A game for those of you who, like me, frequently do dumb things in the heat of the moment while trying to rescue or care for animals…
Dumb Things I Have Done
- Try to lure a disoriented and possibly injured snake into a box… using a Tofu Pup. (Just last night and the inspiration for this post)
- Pick up an injured baby bluejay… while in sight of her mother. (She dive bombed me, hitting my head with the force of a dropped cinderblock.)
- Move a baby black snake out of the road… by picking her up with my hand. (Yes, she bit me. Yes, it hurt. No, I didn’t die [black snakes aren't poisonous]. The little fang marks on my hand were cute.)
- Run around looking for the egg that must have just been laid by the squawking rescued chicken in the yard… who turned out to be a rooster. (That strangled sound was what crowing sounds like when adolescent roosters begin to find their adult voices.)
- … (more to come)
Your turn! No required number, just one or more of the dumbest things you’ve done while trying to rescue or care for a nonhuman animal. Running into traffic doesn’t count. (We’ve all done that and it’s not so dumb, since it’s often the only way to save the animal from those who won’t brake to avoid killing a dog or a duck but will at least swerve to avoid manslaughter.) Otherwise: Anything goes. Let’s hear it. Help me feel a little less dumb about the Tofu Pup.
June 27th, 2007 at 7:26 am
Perhaps the dumbest thing I’ve done to help an animal (not rescue, exactly, so this might not officially count) was to try to grab a feral cat by his tail in an effort to get him into a carrier to go to the vet’s to be neutered.
He was new to another sanctuary, and the sanctuary operator had asked me to help get him into the carrier since he was VERY wild and she wasn’t able to do so.
I chased him around the house for about 45 minutes and then, out of desperation, cornered him (yes, I know) and grabbed for him (aiming for his tail because, again, I am an idiot). He twirled around in my grasp and bit down hard on my hand. I drove 100 miles home with blood pouring down my wrist — nothing more than I deserved.
June 27th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Before we adopted the second dog, Nikita, I was walking the first dog Kyra through a rather bad part of my area. A cat came out, injured on her head, just crying at me. I could tell she was not feral. I petted her a little while. Then I thought about how to get her to the vet. The smart thing would have been to take Kyra home and come back with a carrier. What I did instead was see if I could pick her up. That went ok, so I tried to carry her home, on my shoulder, holding her with one hand, while holding Kyra’s leash in the other. I got one of the worst cat bites I’ve ever gotten, and I really spooked the poor kitty, because I went back multiple times and never could find her again. Luckily I did not die from rabies… Very stupid, bad for me, bad for the cat.
That’s actually a really sad story when you think about it.
June 29th, 2007 at 11:48 am
The first thing that came to mind when you asked this question was something that happened years before I went vegan, but sometime after I’d stopped eating pork and fish. (It was a long process.) I was probably 10 and found my neighbour’s cat playing with a mouse it had caught. There was something very wrong with the mouse, actually, because it could have run away, and in retrospect the cat may have been examining it curiously rather than planning to eat it. But I scared the cat away and tried to shoo the mouse into the undergrowth with a leaf, and it jumped up and bit me. Yep. No serious repercussions other than the fact that I felt like an idiot, fortunately.
June 29th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
That is a sad story, Neva. I’ve got a lot of those. Instead, let me share two dumb things done by Eastern Shore Sanctuary cofounder Miriam Jones (she gave me permission to tell):
1. Tried to get to a rooster on the wrong side of the foraging yard fence… by jumping off a ladder. (She wrenched her knee badly and was limping for a long time.)
2. Grabbed for a snapping turtle… with her bare hands. (The turtle bit and held onto her index finger. She was running around the kitchen with a turtle on the end of her hand. Neither of us can remember how the turtle got into the kitchen to begin with.)