I heard on the radio yesterday that large numbers of people are injured when they trip over their small dogs. Just thought I would throw that in!
Lord, I’ve picked up more injuries tripping over the cats...lol.
Only thing is...it’s the TRIP and not the cat that gets me...knuckle scarred up and still feels a little funny and loose from smashing handfirst into a doorframe after dodging the Feline Derby while half asleep, scraped up hands, whacked my head more than once, even slightly concussed myself (subwoofer to the corner of the eye right on the bone).
Now if looks could kill, some of the indignant glares would have me on the Wall!
LOL!
Don’t *even* go there!
I grew up with Dobermans and until 2001, I *always* had 2 or more around the house.
In 1990, I accidentally fell in with Ibizan Hounds and and had to totally relearn how to navigate the world because they tear around the yard, leaping, hopping and running joyously at insane speeds, their favorite game being “chicken”.
They will charge at me at about 30mph, dead-on and then *suddenly* swerve, narrowly avoiding knocking me flat.
They think this is hysterically great fun.
You have no idea how hard it is to ignore your natural instinct to dart one way or the other to avoid the collision you *think* is coming.
I have learned the hard way that I must remain perfectly -still- because if I move one millimeter, I throw off their carefully calculated trajectory and they accidentally hit me.
*Then* I rescued a Portuguese Podengo from CA.
She is a runt of a mere 18” but a very sturdy weight of 30 pounds.
I am not used to dogs who are smaller than 27 inches at the shoulder and I’ve lost track of the times she’s been walking under my feet, between them as I walk or cuts across in front of me when I’m otherwise moving around.
After having her since September, I’m just now getting used to looking -down- for a possible dog collision.
[and I’ve become quite adept at the “doggy tap dance” necessary to avoid accidentally stepping on her]...:))
It’s even worse if I’m sitting in the grass as they play.
She has adjusted for the size discrepancy between her and my other dogs by flinging her rump in the air and either whapping them with her butt or kicking them with her hind feet.
I thought was brilliantly clever and adaptive of her...until she came flying up behind *me* while I was sitting and watching the other dogs play and just about knocked me out cold with that muscle-bound little butt of hers....:)