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Pickles: 11 Pounds of Helicopter Terror
Posted Tuesday February 13, 2007 at 5:10 pm
(4 years ago)
I went out flying Sunday with Erin's fiancé Josh in my dog yard. I took the dogs with us, and our dachshund Pickles started doing what she does best: digging holes in which we can break our ankles. I was pretty much ignoring her, other than making sure I wasn't going to hit her with the helicopter. I brought it into a steady hover about a foot off the ground and about two feet away from her. After a few seconds, without any warning, she pulled her head out of her hole and leapt at the helicopter, teeth bared, in a ferocious display of power and dominance. She must've gotten smacked pretty hard in the mouth by the spinning rotors. I immediately killed the throttle and the helicopter dropped to the ground. She didn't yipe or anything when it hit her. She just sat down with a confused look for a few seconds, stared at the helicopter as if to say, "Yeah, that should do it," and then turned back around to keep working on the hole she was digging. I picked her up and examined her for any signs of injury, but there weren't any. After the initial confusion, she acted like nothing had happened.
The helicopter was a different story. The flybar was broken on one side, and the paddle was missing. I must've looked around the yard for half an hour but I never found it. It's almost like she swallowed it whole in the split second that she attacked. In any event, I'm once again grounded until I get a new paddle. Only one day after I got it fixed from the last crash, and it was so well-tuned . . . Oh well. It was worth it to see the amazing feat of doggy bravery and athleticism, if not outright stupidity.
I guess I should've seen it coming; I used to hover over her head within 6 inches or so just to annoy her, but she tried to bite the skids once and I decided that I was playing with fire: I'm pretty sure I'd lose my pilot's license if my wife's dog sustained a laceration with me at the controls. I've also seen her catch house flies on numerous occasions, but I didn't think I was close enough to her to be "in range" for an attack. She now gets plenty of space at all times. She's proven to me that it really is her yard.
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