I can't think of any time MY pets have hurt me - Except for the dogs always having to walk on MY bare feet with their big claws!

But we decided to foster for Golden Rescue once, and the golden we had was beautiful! unfortunately, he had also been in 6 or 7 homes in his short 2 yrs of life, and had been abused differently in each one. One kicked him, one refused food and water so the puppy wouldn't 'go' on the floor during the day, one shook him by the collar, one hit or threw him, and so on...

Two of his major problems were that he was very possesive of soft/cloth toys ( so we made sure he had none!) and that he was very collar shy - he hated to have anyone touch his collar. He was young, and he had never bonded with a human - he wanted to be 'alpha' in every situation. Our 15 yr old golden had recently died, and we had no other pets.

We had only had him a week, and in that time he had snapped at me, and actually nipped my son and my mom. Both over taking away a piece of cloth - the corner of a quilt he chewed, and a sock. One night he got up on my bed, and was challenging me. I commanded him 'Off', and He didn't want to go. it was a warm spring night, and I was wearing a sleeveless nightgown. I couldn't grab his collar, as i knew it would scare him and make him more aggressive - so I pulled up the covers on the other side of the bed and tried to 'dump' him off. it did force him to jump off, but he still wanted to 'win' and started jumping on me and gnawing on my arms. He never broke the skin, but he 'chewed' all up and down my bare arms. I managed to grab a pillow to put between us - shoved it in his face and backed him into the bathroom and shut the door.

After being lokcked in the bathroom for an hour or so - he had callmed down and was fine - but my arms were a mess of black and blue and broken blood vessels from my biceps to my fingertips. I had scratches thru my nightgown on my hips from him jumping on me and gouging me with his claws.

He went back to rescue a few days later - I could not trust him in a house with grade school kids & my son. (luckily, they DID find a no-child home for him that spent a year working on his behavior problems and fears - Guiness never became a great 'social' dog, but he did find a loving and SAFE home)

The only other time I was seriously injured by and animal was by a parrot in a pet store!

We used to visit this local pet store all the time where the owner hand-raised birds. There was a parrott there that was young, but very friendly. The owners knew us, and we were in there one day, and the parrot had been 'riding' my son around the store - on his shoulders and head - and I came up to say hello. the parrot walked off Jon and onto me, took some seeds from me, walked my shoulders, sat on my arm - talked to us. he was very friendly and content. However, it got to be time for us to go - so I got him on my hand to transfer him back to his perch. I think he REALLY didn't want us to go! he didn't want to get off my hand, and when I DID get him on the perch, he grabbed my index finger with his beak! Parrots have VERY strong beaks, and he had me really tight- right by the knuckle with the sharp points of his beak! I knew if i pulled away, he'd tear skin and hurt me more, but he had grabbed right by the veins that run on either side of the knuckle and my finger was turning purple! Man, it HURT!!! like someone trying to cut my finger off with a dull knife! The store owner came running over, and somehow, got the bird to let go. there wasn't much broken skin - mostly scrapes from where he'd tried to use his claws to climb BACK on my hand - but i had this deep, deep 'dent' on each side of my knuckle and my finger swelled up to about twice it's normal size! he broke a few blood vessels in the finger and it was very interesting purple/ blue for weeks.

We went back to the store a number of times, and the bird had always been friendly before and after - in fact, he was 'friendly' then - he just really, REALLY did not want us to go, i think!

After that, i would pet him - but we never again let him 'ride' us around the store - i was always a little afraid of what might happen if he decided to grab something like a nose or ear! OOOOWWWWIIIIEEEEE!

Laura