#537 when animals attack

This morning on my way to work, I was listening to the radio. The question to the listeners was "Have you ever been attacked by an animal other than a dog or a cat?"
I think the question stems from recent animal attack incidents - an actor or someone famous was attacked by a dog recently, and there was a mountain lion attack around here somewhere.

Anyway, I usually like to just hear to music, not talking, but the first couple of calls were funny, so I listened.

There was a guy who worked for a cable company and he left the windows in his truck rolled down or the door open or something and when he got back in the vehicle, a raccoon was sitting in the passenger seat. He described it like a scene from a movie: he and the animal looked at each other, then the man yelped and jumped out of the truck, followed by the raccoon who grabbed hold of his pant leg. I can imagine the guy standing in the road trying to shake the raccoon off his leg!

Next there was a man who got too close to a buffalo in Yellowstone and got charged. It turns out the bison only took a couple of steps toward the guy and his friend, but still. I'd freak out and run away, too. Bison are huge! (Almost everyone around here seems to have a bison-attack story.)

There was also a lady who told a story of how a pelican tried to eat her when she was a little girl. She and her family were visiting San Diego and they were looking at the water from a pier or something and a pelican came over and put her whole head in its mouth. She says she remembers being terrified and remembers her father laughing as he pulled the bird off her head. She ended her story by saying that "Pelicans are jerks."

One of my favorite stories was about a man who was swimming in Lake Powell without a shirt - would this detail be uttered anywhere other than Utah? - when a blue gill fish nipped at the dude's nipple and drew blood. Stay out of the fish's home!

Of course, all of these stories reminded me of the time I was attacked by a wild animal.

I was playing golf at Eaglewood. I was on the 18th hole and on the left side of the fairway is an embankment. I could see there were some birds over there by the embankment, so I wanted to stay in the middle of the fairway and avoid the birds. Of course, my ball went directly left to where the birds were, causing the birds to fly to the bushes on the embankment.

The cart path was way on the right side of the fairway, and of course, the ladies I was playing with were all right in the middle or on the right side of the fairway. I had to go to the left by the birds by myself. I got my nine iron and trudged across the fairway. My ball was nestled right by the hillside. I lined up my shot. I pulled the club back and just then, a bird flew at me, coming so close I felt it's wings at the side of my head. I screamed, closed my eyes, waved my club in the air and started running back across the fairway with these stupid birds chasing me and making bird noises. I was terrified.

When I couldn't hear the bird anymore, I opened my eyes. The three ladies I was playing with were laughing their fool heads off. One of them was actually sitting on the ground, holding her stomach, tears pouring down her face as she laughed.

Was it a crow? A hawk? An eagle? No. It was a quail.

I'm pretty sure I was quite a ridiculous sight, lumbering across the fairway, club held high, with the little quail flying after me. Yes, they are small, but that one was scary! Every time I'm at that golf course, I think of the guardian quail at 18.