I'm hard pressed to think of any wild animal I'd pet, or let my dogs approach.
Camping at Elkmont Campground in the Smoky Mountains Nat’l Park several years ago....
Just finished supper and my plate was still on the picnic table as I sat in a folding chair reading a book with a lantern on the table when a skunk waddled over to the table...I just sat still...
He hopped up on the bench and put it’s front paws on the table, leaned over and started licking my food plate...
I sat still as it finished and walked down the bench to the chair I was sitting in...It looked up at me and put it’s front paws on the arm of the chair and just looked up me...
I reached over and scratched the top of it’s head...It shut it’s eyes like a cat would do...
It climbed down and went under my chair and laid down curled up...
I thought I was going to have to sit there still in that chair all night...
After about 5-6 minutes, it got up and waddled back off....
Now, living near the Park and spending a lot of time outdoors and there in the park, I knew the skunks around the campgrounds were used to people and unafraid, but I had never had one act like that...
In recent years, I’ve had close encounters with two different large, wild mammals that I didn’t want to mess with, with my overly friendly and curious dog along, unleashed.
Most recently was what I can only describe as a herd of whitetail deer that were startled out of the undergrowth as we walked past them totally unaware that they were even there. They darted our mere feet in front of us and just kept coming, a good twenty of them. This was on my mother’s acreage in North Carolina, just uphill from the Yadkin River. My dog started after them, not barking or aggressive at all, he had his frisbee in his mouth. He no doubt thought he was going to play with them. He was so close I was sure he’d get kicked, gored, bitten or otherwise mauled. He disappeared over the hills and into the woods running after them. He was gone for hours and I didn’t have the first clue how to begin searching for him. But, he came back on his own, muddied and sans his precious frisbee.
Second was several years ago during a weeklong vacation to the NC Outer Banks. I’d gone outside after dark to put the day’s garbage in the garbage can, much younger same dog along with me as he always insisted whenever I went outside. I practically walked into the large ass end of a wild Spanish Mustang, which was munching on the bayberry bushes growing on the dunes to either side of the sandy driveway. Muah dog ran straight up to it, again wagging his tails. I panicked thinking he was about to be kicked. Fortunately, the wild horse just backed out of the bayberry bushes, snorted and ambled away down the drive and the dog listened when I called him back. This house was in the 4x4 area just above Corolla.
“I’m hard pressed to think of any wild animal I’d pet”
Well, squirrels are pretty harmless and about 99.9% rabies free. If they do bite you, though, even by accident, those front teeth feel like a couple of big hypodermic needles stabbing you.