I have bad luck with certain animals, and I could give several stories (and I have several scars on my foot from a coyote bite), but I’ll stick with just this one that heppened tonight.  I’ll start with my most recent.
    This is kind of a pathetic story, and was really weird.  I was walking on the sidewalk, when out of the corner of my left eye I caught a blur shooting towards me from behind and to the left.  I spun around, hopped a few steps back, and ended up in a somewhat wide sideways stance with my left leg back and hands up, ready to kick or stomp.  The attacker- a cat (it would have been funny for someone walking by).  As I took my stance, the cat also took a low, crouched stance, and it actually made a hissing sound at me.  My only real fear was that it had some disease, and if it bit or scratched me I would have to get a bunch of shots.  I sunk back and down in my stance, scooped up some small rocks, and started tossing them at the cat, and it ran away.  Not really much of a story, but anyway.  I have others.

Spontaneous response

Isn’t it amazing what traning can do for ones natural response?

This is one of those stories that goes in the WTF column.  Sometimes you cannot believe what being in the Martial Arts for a long time does for you.  So, when you aren’t thinking(Zen like state) you are faster than a cat.  How cool is that.  A couple of years ago we were at a restaurant with friends.  We were having a lively discussion when Connor inadvertantly knocked his water glass off the table.  The glass went air born off to my left.  I caught it put it back on the table without looking at it and while I continued telling what ever story I was telling. It was several seconds before I realized the rest of the table had gone quite, and somebody said"How the hell did you do that”.  Zen, don’t think, do.

Make a fool of myself Ninjalike training response story
Sifu Tony calls this the car wash defense -
(to add to my embarrassment, it was wriiten up as part of a story in the Sentinel and I was misquoted ) I was at the drive through car wash with two small children in my car.  I was putting boatloads of quarters into the machine when I saw out of the corner of my eye a very tall 6’ 6’’ street person I had seen around town a lot, approach me from behind and ask for money.  I turned around and said no but he kept coming toward me at a fast pace so I grabbed the long “washwand” ( I cannot make washwand sound cool no matter how I try) and turned toward him and said
“don’t come any closer”. He was definately surprised and sort of looked at me funny but he left.
( Stick of death, wand of wickedness, badass brush….)

Another time
I was walking across the Main drag in Las Vegas, and some piece of flying junk, literally I think it was a stick or piece of wood came flying down towards my face & head I just did an upward block and it flew off. I was in a pretty big crowd so I never really saw what it was, but I had a good bruise on my arm and was glad that I reacted.

I actually had another story that I was going to include with the first.  It involves my dad, his dog, and a violent pit bull- happened last week.  I decided that because there may be legal action, it may be unwise to post anything.

I had another issue with an animal.  I was walking at night again, when I turned a corner and saw a stray dog (the kind they use for police dogs).  I got up on a small brick wall and stared at it, and it stared at me, for a good time.  Then, I got down, crossed the street, and kept walking.  As I walked past, it started walking towards me and growling.  I stepped into a left lead and pulled out my knife in a reverse grip.  I didn’t want to confront a dog, because it just wouldn’t end well.  So, I let out a really loud yell, and the dog ran.  I was pretty happy with that.

Slightly OT, I was told when I was a kid that making eye contact with a dog was a challenge…I wonder if that’s true?

CLFMak - you do seem to have a way with animals.

Definatelt true most animals iterpret direct eye contact as aggression, I guess like people the end result differs with what the particular individual is willing to do about it, bad hair day, yard rage, or whatever

Yeah, I wonder how aggressive they’ll get when they literally get an eye in the face…  then we’ll see…oh yes,  then we shall see little doggy…. :twisted:

Now, you’re just teasing me, Shadow!

I don’t like confronting animals.  Period.  End of comment.  As CLF implies, it won’t end well.

I have quite a way with animals- I mean, I live in San Diego, and I’ve been attacked by a few cats, charged by several dogs (at least six different occasions), bit by a chicken, bit by a coyote, crapped on by no less than four birds, chased down by a gang of geese as a kid, been threatened by a rattlesnake (not just ratting- it darted in my direction a little) and got into an intimidation match with some giant blue bird at the zoo (which I won).  I’m sure that there’s more.  Aside from the coyote bite, its all been minor (I’ve got a sixth sense of finding higher ground when running from dogs).  By the way- saw the same dog roaming the neighborhood a few nights later.  And also since my last post, another cat actually charged at me- a really bizarre occurence.
With the last dog encounter, I just kept thinking “I don’t want to go to the hospital again.  I hate the lines and the rabies vaccine takes a lot of visits and shots.”
Seriously, I don’t know what my problem is.  If I had a late night show, I would make it a point not to have an animal segment.

maybe the animals are not attacking you but actually trying to get friendly with you?

maybe your right and they are attacking you, do you think it’s cause they want your money to buy ice cream…..that would be my excuse.
I swear I haven’t had anything to drink…...............................

All right! Off to the oktoberfest thread with you, birthday boy!