Followers

Wednesday 25 June 2008

Scared? Me?....



David’s (Authorblog) Weekend Wandering question this week is:

The question is: What are you most afraid of?

If you wish to take part here’s what David would like you to do:

Please answer today's question on your own blog, any time until next weekend. Just link to this blog (or to this post) so I can follow the progress of the discussion.



I’m not a big fan of things like slugs, cockroaches and general creepy crawlies but faced with a mouse or God forbid a RAT I would probably drop down dead! Mice and Rats can strike paralysing fear in me even when they’re in a cage. I think it’s the tail – I know it’s irrational but they just have that effect on me, though nothing has ever happened, that I can remember, to instil this irrational fear in me. I think it must be hereditary because my mother was terrified of them too. Is that possible to inherit a fear of something? I remember seeing a contestant on ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’ where she had to lie in a coffin like box underground whilst it filled up with water and RATS! I was hyperventilating just watching, how she stood it with them crawling all over her I will never know. I once worked for a pet food supplier and I arrived one morning and opened my desk drawer to get out my comb and found a mouse looking at itself in the little mirror I kept in the drawer - I almost fainted!

I’m not keen on bats either because they look like rodents, but ever since one got in the house I’ve liked them even less. MWM had opened the front door to put the empty milk bottles out (we still have a milkman who delivers) and left the lounge door open too and as he bent down to put them on the step what I thought was a bird flew in. I shouted to MWM “A bird has just flown in” but he came in and announced “It’s not a bird it’s a bat!” You wouldn’t believe the state I was in, I was curled up in the foetal position, screaming and covering my head with my arms. MWM had the cheek to tell me to stop screaming because I was frightening the bat! Eventually I crawled on all fours to the dining room and locked myself in until MWM told me he’d caught the bat and it was safe to return. I know it’s stupid but I can’t help it.

Did I tell you about the time a squirrel chased me? I had spent hours planting 180 flower bulbs in my garden only to find a squirrel digging them up an hour later. I ran outside and ‘shooed’ it away but it just sat staring at me. I picked up a tennis ball which just happened to be lying around and threw it at the squirrel to scare it away only it must have thought I wanted to play and came bounding over to me – s**t I wasn’t expecting that, I ran inside quick and shut the door. It sat there for ages waiting for me to go out and play!

Give me an ogre of a boss to deal with any day, but an animal that could shoot up your trouser leg before you’d had chance to say “What’s that?” leaves me a nervous wreck!

32 comments:

Pam said...

omgoodness...lmao. that would have been a sight to see a squirrel waiting to play. there's this guy who lives across the street from our old house...he would sit out there feed, talk, & play w the squirrels. i'm sorry, but i don't like bugs, insects, reptiles, rodents, bats, birds...basically anything that's not a dog. lol ok, i like some animals, but i don't need to have them as pets.

buffalodick said...

I've said before, bats/rats/snakes/bugs don't bother me, but I have to kill a spider as soon as one is around me!

RiverPoet said...

Akela - One of my mom's favorite stories was of the time she went snooping in her father's dresser. He had always told the kids to stay out of it because all of that stuff was his and they weren't to touch. Well, that was too much for her to handle as she approached womanhood. She just had to know.

So she came in on a lunch break at the farm, still wearing her oversized button-down shirt that protected her from the sun. She started plundering in the dresser, and suddenly a field mouse ran up the sleeve of her shirt! It was as scared as she and started running back and forth across her back.

Her father came to see what all the screaming and commotion was about, and he started laughing so hard that he couldn't help her. The field mouse finally exited a sleeve and ran out the door to the yard.

Granddad just chuckled and said, "Serves you right!"

Peace - D

Odat said...

Come to think of it, I'm not really scarred of much. Unless I know it can hurt me. I have to admit I don't like those long tails on rats but I'm not afraid of them. I took my dog out to the backyard late the other night and there was an opposum walking along the fence line....I don't like them one bit..they're ugly and have long tails too...yucko. But I just picked up lil Snotdog and waited until he got over the fence. It did gross me out seeing his tail hanging there for a moment.
But I stood my ground!!! hehe.
Peace

G-Man said...

A squirrel is just a bushy-tailed rat!
I hate snakes!!!
And I have this fear of very tight spaces..Like a small cave opening!
What a creepy post...Thanks..xox

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

you still have a milkman that delivers??? lucky duck. we haven't had one of those in twenty years!

i am not a fan of snakes myself. they sort of creep me out...

smiles, bee
xoxoxoxoxoxxooxox

Ron said...

GREAT post, Akelamalu!

And what's really funny, is that you and I are thinking the same thing today!

I KNOW the feeling!?#?@? TRULY!

Enjoy your day, dear lady!

Real Live Lesbian said...

I've never been afraid of squirrels...

until now.

That would terrify me!

CG said...

Spiders and dead crabs...and seaweed. Ugh...

Dumdad said...

A bat in French is "une chauve-souris", which translated is bald mouse so your fear of rats and mice and bats is consistent!

My elder sister hated my mice when we were kids and if I enclosed a mouse in my hand but just left the tail hanging out and wriggling around she'd freak out. Guess what I did? Brothers!

Akelamalu said...

I'm with you Ciara dogs and cats are pets, anything else is a wild creature!

Ah now Buff spiders don't bother me at all!

Oh jeez Momma that would have freaked me out good and proper! I suppose it did serve her right though for being nosey. :(

You were brave Odat I'd have been inside like a flash!

Bush tailed rats - spot on g-man that's why I'm not keen on them and I don't much care for snakes either.

Oh yes lots of people still have milkmen that deliver here Bee - we're very old fashioned! :)

Ah great minds think alike Ron xx

Just don't throw them a tennis ball RLL! ;)

You've been walking on the beach haven't you CG? ;)

See I knew I was right about bats Dumdad! You boys and your pet mice!

Maggie May said...

That was funny! (Sorry)

John said...

Phobias are tough, but the best way to cope is to go through the pain barrier. Sorry, but there it is. Avoidance feels wonderful, but simply reinforces the phobia - if you want to die a phobic, keep up the avoidance!

Linda said...

If you were to ask me I'd have to say snakes ... like Indiana Jones before me, I can't tolerate snakes! All of that sideways slithering scares the beejeebers out of me and then some!

la bellina mammina said...

COCKROACHES!! - I'm terrified of them!

Marianne said...

I totally agree! There's no reasoning with the little creatures. x M

Flowerpot said...

having had a breakdown many years ago, I would clearly say having another one.

Akelamalu said...

I can laugh too Maggie - now! :)

I'm afraid as far as mice and rats are concerned I will die a phobil Ernest. Welcome by the way. :)

My Dad is terrified of snakes too Linda, even watching them on the TV!

Horrible nasty things Bella. Apparently if there was a nuclear war the only things that would survive would be Rats and cockroaches!

You are right Marianne!

Oh yes Flowerpot, that must be a terrifying prospect for you. xx

Unknown said...

We all have fears. I do not like snakes either. They send me over the edge.

James Goodman said...

It's odd, but animals don't bother me at all. Rodents, snakes, insects, none of them creep my out in the slightest.

Sandi McBride said...

I rather like Bats...and don't mind the odd mouse...it's the spiders I can't abide!
hugs
Sandi

Georgina said...

Came back for the sound track, but shit I thought I'd better earn the music and comment.

My Dad is and was Dead Macho, he hated rodents, so much so that I used to release my Gerbils in the bathroom before he had a bath. I was only allowed a hamster after being assaulted as a child to make me feel better (probably my parents too).

Recently We found a "Lerot" (a dormouse type critter, the size of a small rat) in the kitchen. My husband (a vet) wouldn't go near it. http://lehnersinfrance.blogspot.com/search/label/Lerot

I had to remove it and the little bar steward turned and spat like a cat as I released him. Well he got his come upance (spelling?) I found him headless the next day by the post box. How do I know it was the same one you ask, simple, same nipple piercing! Debs x

cathy said...

My daughter has a pet squirrel, it bit grandma a while back and it was a nasty bite.

Robin said...

that was so funny about the squirrel, akela!! i'm picturing the poor squirrel's face as you ran back in the house........

squirrel's don't bother me (of course i've never met one who likes to play ball) but i HATE spiders, snakes, creepy crawlies and your usual rodents!

(wonder if that mouse liked what he saw when he looked in the mirror? sounds like a children's tale...lol)

Cath said...

Wow Akela - what an honest telling of your fears! I am not fond of rodents either, but could get out of the room on my feet. It is large spiders that move fast for me.

Well written. I was frightened with you! And MWM has no sympathy!
Thanks for all your visits at mine - I appreciate and will try to get around more often.

Anonymous said...

Hmm - guess you wouldn't like our gerbils, with theirlong hairless tails! I feel the same way about centipedes, though, so I understand.

Akelamalu said...

Yes you're right we do all have fears Dave.

Lucky you James, I wish I could say the same. :(

I'll have your spiders and you can have my bats and mice Sandi!

That's a great story Debs LOL

Squirrels have huge teeth don't they Cathy!

The mouse looked rather surprised when it saw me Robin!

MWM laughs at my fers a lot Cath - how cheeky is he?

Hairless tails? Ooooh Citizen don't!!!! :(

Jennifer S said...

Bats freak me out. And, many of them in this part of the country are rabid, which freaks me out more. I'll have to blog my bat story sometime!

((shivers))

Akelamalu said...

Oh yes please blog your bat story Jennifer!

Travis Cody said...

I'm so with you on creepy crawly things...I'm afraid of spiders. Ick!

I'm not too fond of the idea of mice or rats either.

But cheeky squirrels! We have those here too. They sit on the steps leading down to our place, and the just won't move...even as we start to walk down the steps!

Cheeky little bastards!

Suburbia said...

Love the squirrel story! Husband wages war on them regularly!!

Akelamalu said...

LOL the squirrels are definitely getting cheekier Trav :)

I know squirrels can be very destructive if they get inside Suburbia, so you have to keep them at bay.