Scaredy Cat

Luna can easily scare herself when on a night time walk.  Her reaction is usually to get low and sprint towards me.  This usually ends up with her taking out my knees from behind or stepping on my flip flops.  It is really annoying especially when we are walking near traffic.  She is also able to spook herself on the most insignificant thing.  Here is a list of things Luna finds scary and things that should be scary, but she doesn't care about.

Scary things Luna can ignore:

1. Lightning/thunder
2. Motorcycles
3. Cars backfiring
4. Bicycles/Fast moving people
5. Loud, unexpected noises (crashes, chainsaws, etc.)

Scary things that Luna reacts to:

1. Weird shadows
2. Unheard sounds
3. Unseen movements
4. When she trips
5. A parked, unattended motorcycle

After an incident this past week we will have to add cats to the list of scary things.  We have a neighbor who owns a very friendly cat.  Luna and the cat have met a few times before and enjoy sniffing one another.  The cat actually will rub up against Luna if she will stand still.  On our walk we saw the cat and decided to stop to say hello.  

When it was time to get going I called Luna, not realizing that the cat was between us and Luna wasn't watching where she was going.  She stepped on the cat which caused the cat to hiss (and probably swat, but I didn't see that).  While the cat was hissing, Luna was screaming/yelping.  You would have thought these two were in a fight to the death.  

To make matters worse, we were in an area that sounds echo off of the buildings so the whole ordeal was very loud.  More than a few neighbors stuck their heads out their windows to see what was happening.  I just kept walking in the hopes that I would not die of embarrassment.  "Nothing to see here.  Just a silly dog stepping on a cat."  Both animals totally overreacted to the incident.

Neither the cat or Luna was hurt which is good, but I'm sure they will keep their distance for awhile.