Eleanor has fears that come and go. For a while, she was extremely afraid of the vaccuum cleaner, hand blender, hair dryer and coffee grinder. Then she wasn’t. Then she was. Now she isn’t. She actually pats the vaccuum cleaner and follows it around like a dear friend when I get my act together to clean up the small chihauhau’s worth of hair Belly leaves around the place.
She wasn’t afraid of Charlie, Dan and Bonnie’s (very, very) friendly lab and would let Charlie lick her with canine abandon. Now she is and will not.
I get the loud noises and galumphing labrador but I do not get her fear of cute, small animals. A couple of months ago, Eleanor and I came across a litter of dachshund puppies that lived in our neighborhood. They were cavorting on the lawn and I put Eleanor down to play with them and look adorable. You know, like a toilet paper commercial. Man, did she hate those puppies. She screamed and tried to drag herself away from them (this was pre-crawling). Anything but those 8-ounce, pink-nosed, fuzzy, sweet and tumbling hounds of hell.
She has also decided she is terrified of the chickens. When we let the hens out of the coop last week (oh fateful day!), she moaned and cried pitifully when I put her down next to Maxine who was at least 3 feet away from her and benignly pecking at the driveway. Seriously, Eleanor? A chicken?
Leo, on the other hand, has no such reservations. Here he is offering my car keys to Maxine:
"Let's go Maxine, you & me, out on the open road. Now...can you drive?"
Birds are like tiny leftover dinosaurs. I say Eleanor has the right idea to be terrified.