God does have a sense of humor

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BostLabs

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Ok this one is more of a Marine Corps story than an animal story.

I went through boot camp in in USMCRD San Diego (United States Marine Corps Recruit Depot), CA. Recruits have all sorts of rules and regulations that they must follow or pay the price. The price varies from infraction to infraction. Anything from getting Thrashed (a very intense and unpleasant series of exercises) to NJP (Non Judicial Punishment) to getting booted from the Corps.

One of the rules was how to deal with wildlife while on Camp Pendleton during field training. For the most part, avoid animals and do not kill them unless you are defending yourself and in fear of your life.

So we are on this armed hike/patrol (no ammo but everything else) and moving up one of Camp Pendletons numerous hills/mini mountains and I see recruits in front of me moving to the side avoiding something. That in itself is unusual as the DI's will make you go through all sorts of things (water, mud, mudholes) to keep discipline.

So as I come up to the spot I see a Tarantula (bigger than my hand with fingers spread). First instinct is to kill the bugger and move on (it is a spider ya know) but training took over so I step to the side like everyone else. Suddenly my DI is in front of me stopping my side step.

And in a loud voice (like there was any other volume for DI's) he says "OH MY! IT IS A SPIDER!" The Tarantula, not impressed by the DI, raises its two front legs and hisses at the DI. The DI says, again in a loud voice "OH MY! I AM UNDER ATTACK AND IN FEAR OF MY LIFE!" and stomps the spider FLAT. Then screams at me for stopping and watching. LOL! Later I paid the price for stopping but it was worth it.

And yes, it took everything I had but I did not laugh. I knew I would be doing push ups with my face above the smashed spider. LOL
 
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Robino1

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You can't do that Angel!!!! I'm subscribed, how would I ever find it again???????
Do you KNOW how many halls there are in this place?!? :facepalm:

We actually tested changing the name of a thread over in the HHV subforum. It did not break the subscription. But only a mod can change titles of threads.

I'm a pile of stupid info. ;)
 

Kayte

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So many great stories in here! Can't wait for more. :D

I'm not a great story teller, but the tarantula story reminded me of one. We spent every summer on my grandparents farm in Texas. One summer my grandmother decided she wanted to go bike riding with me. She had gotten a new toy for getting around the farm... a giant red tricycle. :lol: So, I hop on my granddads bike and she gets on hers and off we go. I'm totally enjoying watching my grandmother have such a great time. I look out over the fields and notice movement. LOTS of movement... as in the ground is alive with a black mass. And it's moving in our direction. :ohmy:

Pretty soon, they reach the road we're on. Millions of tarantulas. I'm not exaggerating. I had never heard of a tarantula migration but there we were, smack dab in the middle of one. On nothing but bikes. I started to freak out, but grandmother? Nope. She was laughing. Actually she was cackling ... loudly... and running them over with every spin of her wheels. It's a picture I'll never forget. She turned what would have been total trauma for me (a 12/13 year old girl) into an adventure I'll always remember. I had a great pioneer stock grandmother! :D
 

HauntedMyst

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Sam1s.jpg

This was Samuel J Dogg. We lived in a condo in the city and my wife decided she wanted to have a baby. I decided I wanted to have a dog. She said I don't want a dog. I played the sperm card and said there is no way we are having a baby if we can't take care of a dog. She said she didn't want a dog but after two months of my sperm embargo, she relented and said ok, we can get a dog. So I went to the dog rescue and found Sam sitting by himself in a cage when all the other dogs were together. He weighed 45 pounds and you could see nearly every bone in his ribs and legs, severe malnutrition but smart a whip. The rescue found the previous owner who had tied him up outside and feed him once or twice a week. He was so sweet when I'd come by the cage and listened when I sat down by the cage and told him to sit down. So every other day for 2 weeks, I'd go by to visit him and he was always the same way so I adopted him and took him home.

A year later, Sam weighed 75 pounds and I could train him to do almost anything. He and I would go to the park every day to run and play. I'm a late night person so at 1 or 2, we'd go out for a walk after my wife went to sleep. I'd stroll and smoke and Sam would inspect every odor in every door way.

Turns out for as sweet as he was, he was alone for a reason. He was an Alpha dog. For as cool as anyone might think having an Alpha dog for a pet it, its not when it comes to playing with other dogs. He was in charge of any dog he ran into, no matter what their size. The neighbors 130 pound Great Dane? Submitted to him in about 1 minute.

The upside of an Alpha is their absolute fearless protection. We lived in Old Town, which in Chicago is a high end neighborhood right across from what was at the time, Cabrini Green, one of the worst housing projects in the city. Rampant gangs, drugs, etc. If Chicago had an anus, at that time it would be Cabrini Green. One night, a group of 5 high school youth from Cabrini Green decided to head out on to the streets of Chicago, probably to ask for donations to their church and whatever it is youth dressed like gang kids from Cabrini Green do at 2am. I saw them walking towards me while Sam was sniffing in a door way (they couldn't see him). They had that same "feel good" vibe you get from a visit to penitentiary shower but didn't pay them any attention figuring they would turn down another street before they got near me. I turned around and went back to my thoughts when suddenly I hear this "Hey Mista..." The hair went up on the back of my neck when you suddenly expect something bad to happen. Next thing I know, I see this flash of blonde hair go by me at light speed as Sam ran out of the door way and locked on to the front ones groin like vise-grips. The other 4 ran away screaming and left this guy crying "Please make him let go, we didn't mean nuthin!" So there I am scared but laughing uncontrollably as Sam tugs on this guys junk with his canines. As soon as I could, and it took a good 30 seconds (which probably felt like a life time to this poor guy who has at this point lost all his tough guy swagger) for me to tell Sam to let go. He did and we walked home together with me laughing silently to myself. Now I never taught him any of that but from that point on, I never locked the doors to the house. I figured if anyone broke in, watching them soil themselves as Sam taught them not to break into peoples houses would be lesson enough.
 
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Robino1

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View attachment 210889

This was Samuel J Dogg. We lived in a condo in the city and my wife decided she wanted to have a baby. I decided I wanted to have a dog. She said I don't want a dog. I played the sperm card and said there is no way we are having a baby if we can't take care of a dog. She said she didn't want a dog but after two months of my sperm embargo, she relented and said ok, we can get a dog. So I went to the dog rescue and found Sam sitting by himself in a cage when all the other dogs were together. He weighed 45 pounds and you could see nearly every bone in his ribs and legs, severe malnutrition but smart a whip. The rescue found the previous owner who had tied him up outside and feed him once or twice a week. He was so sweet when I'd come by the cage and listened when I sat down by the cage and told him to sit down. So every other day for 2 weeks, I'd go by to visit him and he was always the same way so I adopted him and took him home.

A year later, Sam weighed 75 pounds and I could train him to do almost anything. He and I would go to the park every day to run and play. I'm a late night person so at 1 or 2, we'd go out for a walk after my wife went to sleep. I'd stroll and smoke and Sam would inspect every odor in every door way.

Turns out for as sweet as he was, he was alone for a reason. He was an Alpha dog. For as cool as anyone might think having an Alpha dog for a pet it, its not when it comes to playing with other dogs. He was in charge of any dog he ran into, no matter what their size. The neighbors 130 pound Great Dane? Submitted to him in about 1 minute.

The upside of an Alpha is their absolute fearless protection. We lived in Old Town, which in Chicago is a high end neighborhood right across from what was at the time, Cabrini Green, one of the worst housing projects in the city. Rampant gangs, drugs, etc. If Chicago had an anus, at that time it would be Cabrini Green. One night, a group of 5 high school youth from Cabrini Green decided to head out on to the streets of Chicago, probably to ask for donations to their church and whatever it is youth dressed like gang kids from Cabrini Green do at 2am. I saw them walking towards me while Sam was sniffing in a door way (they couldn't see him). They had that same "feel good" vibe you get from a visit to penitentiary shower but didn't pay them any attention figuring they would turn down another street before they got near me. I turned around and went back to my thoughts when suddenly I hear this "Hey Mista..." The hair went up on the back of my neck when you suddenly expect something bad to happen. Next thing I know, I see this flash of blonde hair go by me at light speed as Sam ran out of the door way and locked on to the front ones groin like vise-grips. The other 4 ran away screaming and left this guy crying "Please make him let go, we didn't mean nuthin!" So there I am scared but laughing uncontrollably as Sam tugs on this guys junk with his canines. As soon as I could, and it took a good 30 seconds (which probably felt like a life time to this poor guy who has at this point lost all his tough guy swagger) for me to tell Sam to let go. He did and we walked home together with me laughing silently to myself. Now I never taught him any of that but from that point on, I never locked the doors to the house. I figured if anyone broke in, watching them soil themselves as Sam taught them not to break into peoples houses would be lesson enough.

Awesome! Yay Sam!
 

VpnDrgn

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I never met an animal I didn't like, or an animal that didn't like me, especially dogs.

a couple short stories -

I went with my grandfather to help finish cleaning up after a roofing job. When we got there he went to find the owner
and I wandered to the back yard to see how much old cedar shakes I was gonna have to "help" clean up.
There where 2 absolutely huge rottweilers in the back yard and I proceeded to play with them.
He heard them barking and came running around the back yelling not to get near the dogs.
( he went to find the owner so they could lock up the dogs ) Apparently the dogs were pretty vicious around
strangers, and he and the owner were speechless to find me on the ground "wrastlin" with these two
vicious dogs that were hopping around me like a couple of puppies.

I was walking to school one morning when I came upon some other kids teasing a dog with a stick.
He was chained to a tree in the front yard and they had him so worked up he was actually starting to
foam at the mouth. I went up and got him calmed down while the others were still yelling and making
the usual snide remarks kids do. As I am talking to the dog I see the owner has a fenced in back yard,
so I figure I'll unhook the dog and put him in the back. I have him by the collar and we are walking to the
back yard when I say out loud to myself, I wonder what would happen if I let go of his collar.
I have never seen kids in such a hurry to get to school. ( Ok, so I have a mean streak )

I miss having a dog ( or 2, or 3 ), but I know I don't have the time to give one the attention they need.
Besides, I don't think my owners ( I have 2 cats ) would appreciate a dog muscling in on their turf.
 
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