One Thing You Shouldn’t Do If You Meet a Stray Dog

You’re riding the bus to your new friend’s house. You’ve never been to that part of the city, and you don’t really know the area. You get off the bus and you’ve gotta walk a block. As you walk, something sends a shiver down your spine. Uh oh, seems like it’s a stray dog.

Of course dogs are people’s best friends, but sometimes even they can pose a serious danger. Joggers, runners, and bikers may trigger the dog by their motion. So walking really fast or running to escape from the dogs, is something you should never do.

First, any dog is faster than you are. Even the tiniest chihuahua can accelerate to 15 mph [25 kph] — about the average human running speed. But bigger dogs run at twice that pace, while greyhounds can be faster than some cars running at 45 mph [72 kph] (I just hope they don’t get speed limit fines!)

So, you become attractive to a dog if you’re riding a bike or even a skateboard. If you stop, the animal might just lose interest in you. Don’t try to move faster — a dog can easily catch up with you. Next, always avoid direct eye contact. You need to stand a bit sideways, this way you’re a narrower target for the dog. Still, always keep the dog in your peripheral vision.

Also, you need to distract the dog’s attention somehow. It’s probably a good idea to always have something that can be used for this purpose. It can be a sweatshirt tied around your waist — you can pull it off quickly and throw it to distract the dog.

If you go jogging, and you know there might be stray dogs, take a stuffed dog toy with you. In case of emergency even throwing a shoe can be a good idea, but walking home barefooted doesn’t sound like a nice experience.

If the worst is inevitable, make sure to protect your face, throat, and chest. To protect your fingers, keep your hands in fists. It may sound strange, but there’s actually the best place to be bitten — it’s the forearm. If you’re bitten, don’t pull away — it’ll just make things worse.

If you walk with your small pet, take it in your arms to protect it from a stray dog. Most stray dogs are afraid of humans, but you can show them your intentions are nothing but peaceful.

If you yawn, lick your lips, and keep sideways to the dog, the animal feels calmer. If you let that dog approach you and take a sniff, that’s cool. Just don’t raise your hands while they’re sniffing; they don’t expect it and might get surprised... and, unfortunately, bite. Ouch!

Finally, a dog may simply be lost and missing its beloved human. If you see stray dogs, always report them because the owners are surely looking for their fluffy friends. A friendly looking animal may trick you into thinking you can pet them. Don’t touch unfamiliar animals no matter how sweet they are. If you see the animal is kind of aggressive, stay away, but don’t run. If you feel like you’ve gotta escape, do that slowly, with no sudden moves.

Raccoons aren’t domesticated, and even though some people claim it’s possible to tame them, it’s only partly true. First. Raccoons don’t wanna mess with those who are significantly larger, so try to appear as sturdy as possible if you meet one in the wild. Stand up, open your chest, wave your arms.

These simple steps might be enough to keep the raccoon away, but if it’s still approaching you, spray some water on them. Yeah, they like washing things, but if someone sprays water on you, it’s a bit unpleasant. The good thing is that it’s totally safe for both the animal and you.

If you live in a raccoony area, make sure you keep windows and doors closed all the time — they like getting into houses looking for some yummy human food. In case you see this unexpected guest in a mask that you didn’t actually invite, just stay calm.

The best thing to do is to leave the exit door or the pet door open, close the doors to all the other rooms and let the animal find the way out on its own. In case the guest just won’t leave, you might wanna help. You can show the raccoon its way with a broom, gently directing the animal out of your house. But make sure you don’t corner the animal, or the raccoon might want to defend itself.

A raccoon never wants to pay you a visit if you’ve got nothing to offer. Don’t feed them: the more food you give them, the more raccoons will come to see you — they must hear it on the grapevine that there’s some human giving free food to raccoons.

If you have pets who like to hang out in the yard, and you leave them food, don’t forget to clean up after your pet’s finished the meal and never leave “some food for later.” It may attract raccoons, and they don’t really get on well with dogs. Never leave trash outside: surprisingly, raccoons just love it. Clean up the yard after you’ve finished your barbecue — food scraps are super attractive for these animals.

If you’ve ever shared an apartment, there must’ve been a housemate you wanted to evict. Bang! Bang! Do you hear that? It sounds way heavier than rain and even hail. Those are possum paws that make all this noise. First thing you wanna do is cut the access to the roof.

Since these animals just wanna hide somewhere safe, you can build or buy boxes for them and leave those boxes in your garden — it may be even more comfy for possums than the roof! If they still hang out on top of your house, just make sure there are no holes and gaps, so they do it safely.

These guys are harmless for humans and pets. They’re definitely way more afraid of you than you are of them and they kinda “faint” when they find the situation dangerous. They hardly ever attack anyone, and they might do that only to protect their young.

Coyotes can be found almost everywhere in North America, so chances are you’re gonna meet them one day, especially if you live somewhere around California. These foxlike animals are usually a bit afraid of humans, but if people feed them, they start losing that fear and might start invading in cities. If you leave your pet food or even garbage unattended, you actually feed coyotes, because these delicacies attract them a lot.

If you see a coyote in the wild, don’t run away. If it’s approaching you, it’s better to throw something in its direction just to make it run away. Be especially careful in May when they need to protect their cubs. A can with rocks inside it may come in handy — if you shake it, it’ll be a sort of DIY noisemaker. When you’re out walking, just carry it with you in case you need to frighten some wild animal away. Also, a flashlight is another good “repellent” for coyotes.

Snakes, and especially rattlesnakes like it when there’s plenty of space. So if you meet a rattlesnake one day, stay at a distance of at least 5 feet away from it. Never try to attack it, if you do so, the snake will get mad at you and will definitely bite you.

The good thing about rattlesnakes is that you can actually hear them rattle, so you can locate where this sound comes from. Don’t step any closer until you understand where the snake’s hiding — otherwise you risk stepping right on it. Never throw anything at snakes, because they will definitely strike back.

You probably didn’t expect this one, but adorable fluffy cats may be super dangerous if they’re feral. Stray cats get together in gangs and sometimes attack not only those cats who live with humans, but even humans themselves!

There are several signs that can help you understand cats’ language: if the animal’s frightened, it hisses, growls and may even spit at you. Their eyes aren’t dilated, their fur is quite relaxed, and they keep their head up straight.

If the cat’s aggressive, its fur is on end and its ears are back. The eyes get dilated, and instead of hissing, the animal howls.

To calm the cat down, speak in a low, soothing voice. A cat might want to sniff you too, just like dogs do, so don’t be afraid and let the animal do that.

Don’t touch the cat because there are a lot of germs on their claws, and you don’t wanna get a scratch.