Well this was scary as hell

[Heretic Apostate]

Ack. Keep your cats inside, everyone.

In the case of this cat, it was skin cancer that killed him. White-furred cats and sunlight don't mix. (Unfortunately, it was my sister's cat, and my dad couldn't be convinced to put it down until after my sister had a chance to return home to say goodbye. Dude, half of his fricking nose had fallen off, he was snorting blood, and he was always moaning in pain. Put the damn cat down!!! Sheesh...)

 

[MaxKaladin]

I carried a sword myself for a while. In college I lived in an otherwise decent neighborhood (mostly university employees) that was just crawling with dogs. It seemed like every other house had big, loud dogs and they'd occasionally get out. One of our neighbors had a dog that was especially bad about it and was known to jump through glass windows to get out. I used to carry my sword to and from my pickup in case the dog was out and felt like ripping someone to shreds (it attacked a mailman once -- I don't know how they managed to keep it from being put down).

 

[Darth Shoju]

I carried a sword myself for a while. In college I lived in an otherwise decent neighborhood (mostly university employees) that was just crawling with dogs. It seemed like every other house had big, loud dogs and they'd occasionally get out. One of our neighbors had a dog that was especially bad about it and was known to jump through glass windows to get out. I used to carry my sword to and from my pickup in case the dog was out and felt like ripping someone to shreds (it attacked a mailman once -- I don't know how they managed to keep it from being put down).

Man, any dog willing to jump through a glass window has to be down right mean. I'd imagine you'd have to whack it pretty good with a dull sword to get it to go away (probably less hard if the sword is sharp ). My cousin has a doberman that weighs very close to 100 lbs (everyone says that it is freakishly large for the breed). It's a generally well-mannered dog but after seeing it rough-house and play and looking at the solid mass of muscle that constitutes its body, I figure I have pretty much no chance of taking it down empty-handed if it decided to kill me. Even with a weapon I'd probably have to strike hard and fast, because if that thing latched onto my wrist I think it could probably just bite my hand clean off.

The only "dogs" that I found more intimidating than that doberman were the three wolves that came to visit our farmyard one Christmas morning. Our farm dog was pretty big in his own right (80 lb German Sheppard/Golden Lab cross), but these things made him look like a puppy. As frightening as their size was, I think the most unerving part was watching their merciless, clinical pack-hunting instinct kick in as they closed in on our dog. Yelling at them didn't scare them off and the only thing that kept them from tearing our dog to bits was my dad shooting at the ground near them.

Growing up on a farm I realized just how physically inadequate we are next to many animals. As tough as dogs can be, try hitting a horse or a cow (let alone a bull!) with a stick and see how far it gets you. Unless you know exactly where to hit it, animals that size barely even notice. When I was a kid I was terrified of our bulls, so my dad used to say that our only real advantage over the bulls was that they were (usually) too stupid to realize they didn' t have to listen to us.