What's the most serious injury you've ever received from an other-than-human animal?

What do you want for nothing? A rubber biscuit?

 

  Why would you assume that I want something?  There’s nothing that I want.

That's pretty impressive, Nanoose! 

Cheers and thanks for replying! :)

I knew nothing about dragonfly larva.
Your post prompted me to look them up and led to all sorts of juicy tidbits.
Wiki - "Dragonflies are predators, both in their aquatic larval stage when they are known as nymphs or naiads, and as adults."
Fancy that! You were bitten by a predatory nymph!

Dragonflies have a uniquely complex mode of reproduction involving indirect insemination, delayed fertilization, and sperm competition. During mating, the male grasps the female at the back of the head, and the female curls her abdomen under her body to pick up sperm from the male's secondary genitalia at the front of his abdomen, forming the "heart" or "wheel" posture."

I've often stopped to watch them dancing around over rocky creek beds and quiet ponds - have always loved that aerial duet-ballet that seems to be their courtship flight. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to do that! All those glittering wings and jewel colours flashing like miniature strobes in the shade. I've seen that curled-up mating posture and wondered how on earth the gametes ever managed to meet.

It turns out "dragonfly nymphs vary in form with species, and are loosely classed into claspers, sprawlers, hiders, and burrowers," so I might have seen them as grubs in all sorts of places and had no idea what they were.
"The nymph lacks wings and reproductive organs. The lower jaw has a huge, extensible labium, armed with hooks and spines, which is used for catching prey." Ouch! No wonder the bite hurt.
"This labium is folded under the body at rest and struck out at great speed by hydraulic pressure created by the abdominal muscles... Dragonfly nymphs have internal gills, located around the fourth and fifth abdominal segments. Water is pumped in and out of the abdomen through an opening at the tip. The naiads of some clubtails that burrow into the sediment, have a snorkel-like tube at the end of the abdomen enabling them to draw in clean water while they are buried in mud. Naiads can forcefully expel a jet of water to propel themselves with great rapidity." So, the power to escape or attack with the force of surprise - they as fickle as any nymph of Greek myth.

Now, I wonder, just what was it about you that caused that particular nymph to see you as a juicy morsel. This post was edited by inky at November 20, 2020 8:29 PM MST

Not sure why it chose  me but now that I hear that they can be fickle  Im flatterd that it did. Cheers and happy weekend!

Spider bites can be quite serious. Hope yours wasn't too bad. 

Ouch!! Lucky it wasn't worse, really. They're quite dangerous animals!

I was trying to think of my most injurious incident when I wrote this. I think either being thrown from a horse or bumble bee sting to the face (reaction), but I know there was a cat-bite that required medical intervention. Nothing too serious. 

 

  I warned you against cross-species French-kissing, but did you listen? Do you ever listen to me?
~

Never!

Ouch! What kind of dog? 

It would be really ironic if it was a Japanese Chin.

It was about 17 years ago, so my memory is fuzzy, but it was a mix of chow chow and another breed. I was at a friend's birthday party, sitting in a chair feeding treats to the dog as it sat in front of me. Without warning, it just jumped up and bit me.

Wow! That's shocking! Had he/she ever done anything like that before? 

Are you wary of the breed now, or of dogs in general?

I think the dog had also once bitten my friend's daughter. They had Rumpus (great dog name!) put to sleep after that. No, I still love dogs, although I can't have my own because of allergies. I even get severe reactions to the supposedly hypoallergenic breeds.

That's sad. I hate breed stereotypes, but there is information about Chow Chows having funky brain disorders that causes aggression to appear after having been wonderfully affectionate and good-natured pets for years. I've seen it happen and it's heartbreaking. 

Yeah, there really are not such breeds. False advertising and fake news! :)

Was it an accident? 

Much as I love dogs (and that's a whole lot), I don't usually get in the faces of dogs who I don't know very well. 

It was stupidity...mine. I did what you said you didn't. I was 12 years old.

We live and (hopefully) learn! 

Is this why you have cats? (I'm nosey).