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Clearly, people are misguided in their zombie apocalypse preparations and it is not zombies, but scarecrow invasion that is the real threat! The town in which I work, Shelburne VT, every October, has fun, decorative scarecrow people placed all throughout town every year all October.
Last evening, on my way through town from where I live to elsewhere, I had Moko in the jeep with me, intending to do some more training work with him at Tractor Supply and Pet Food Warehouse.
He hasn't really taken much note of the scarecrows, before, as he thankfully has expanded his comfort zone a bit and no longer flips out at everything he sees when driving, if people appear to be approaching the jeep, he'll still go into a rage, but if they are minding their own business walking along the sidewalk he no longer gets worked up. So the last couple times we've driven through the town, he hasn't really responded to them.
THIS time, though, we stopped at the light in the main intersection of the village which had turned red. The little park green to the right of us has one or two of these scarecrows, one of which was almost right next to the jeep.
In the rearview mirror I saw Moko take note of the scarecrow, (In a big floppy straw hat and with a dress blowing in the breeze,) and as he's watching it, (to determine if it will go its own way or begin to approach thus prompting him to "defend" us,) I could see the exact moment he realized there was something unnatural about it. It LOOKS like a person, but it's not.... he froze statue-still, except for his hackles which rippled up in slow motion along his back until he was all-over bristled, and then went berzerk barking and growling and lunging. He then reacted to every other scarecrow we passed. *lol* It was kind of funny, but, clearly, I redirected my training plans for the evening and we took a walk around Shelburne town instead! *lol*
You should have SEEN him as we went up to "meet" each of these creepy non-people! I didn't try to drag him or force him to go up to them, just walked naturally along and up to them until he started zigzagging wildly on the leash and trying to go wide around and circle it, then I'd just stop and wait while he did and approach-and-retreat dance and whined and growled and false-started, and we would gradually, slowly work our way closer until he could sniff the hem of a dress and leap back as though it bit him and dance around some more. It was really quite comical if I didn't feel so sympathetic at his distress level. We did a few "greets" with lots of praise every time he successfully "met" one of the scarecrows, and then called it a night and went to the farm where he could run and romp and blow out all of the pent-up stress in a safe comfort-zone. I see a lot of Shelburne village walks in the days to come!
