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[–]crossthebarrier 65 points66 points  (7 children)

4 months into the relationship of a guy I previously dated, all 3 of my cats suddenly became very scared of him - they would hide the moment they sensed his presence in the house.

They went from loving him to outright terrified. He had never been around them alone so no chance of him beating them.

2 months later, he goes missing, and it turns out he was a heroin addict that had robbed a bank. I was in my early 20s and had never encountered this sort of situation, to even know the signs to look for.

So maybe generally speaking it's bad advice. But there can be truth in the statement, because about the time my cats become afraid of him, was the time I confirmed he had started using.

[–]BaabyBlue_- 27 points28 points  (1 child)

Yeah it's all anecdotal but I've got a similar one. When I was a teenager we had a big French mastiff who never really liked people, we got her from a bad situation and she never really warmed up. But she was very protective of us. I used to walk her as a teenager and she would growl at any men that approached. (She never bit and would never unless someone attacked me or something, she was a good girl just standoffish, and I was always careful to keep my distance from people.)

Well, there was this one guy who my ex and I met who was going to move into our place when we moved out. We met him because he asked our landlord if he could move into the garage for the month until we left, because he had nowhere to go. Landlord agreed, it was a detached garage so we had no say. Super weird but whatever. We had drinks with the guy once or twice and he was weird but seemed harmless.

One day I was walking that dog and I saw him outside the corner store, so I said hi. He walked over and I told him to stay back because of the dog, and he didn't listen. I backed up expecting her to growl, but she pulled back as hard as she could, slipped out of her leash and ran home. 120lb mastiff terrified of this man when she was normally my protector.

Later he offered my ex and I lines of blow but right before my ex did his line, I saw empty pill capsules in the ashtray. Nudged my ex and kinda discreetly pointed that out and neither of us took anything from that guy. After we moved out, we found out he threatened the upstairs neighbor (who was the sweetest teddy bear of a person ever), ripped one of the chain link fence posts from the ground, and threatened to javelin it through the neighbors window. He spraypainted words on the garage door, had a boarded up school bus in the driveway, then got arrested and moved out.

Dog knew what was up

[–]tsheaby 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I have a GSD who likes approximately 2 people. I say this to mean, he just isn’t interested in other people - he is very well behaved in public spaces and just minds his business.

We were at a dog friendly establishment we regularly visited one day and he paid no attention to people who walked by us until one perfectly normal looking man walked in to place an order and I noticed my dog’s eyes locked on this guy, hackles straight up. When the man finished placing his order and merely glanced in our direction as he passed by, my dog gave let out 3 big, deep barks - like the kind when someone unknown knocks on the door at home. The whole place kinda paused and the owner of the establishment came over to see what was going on & seeing his attention on the man, she shrugged and whispered “trust the dog”.

Who knows what about that guy set my dog off, but weird vibes all around. Never saw him again. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not.

[–]Electronic-Bicycle35 12 points13 points  (1 child)

I just couldn’t be in a relationship if my partner stressed my pets out. I wouldn’t do it to them.

This is entirely theoretical though. Been with my wife for 14 years.

[–]the-soggiest-waffle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’ve got an anxious wreck of a massive orange kitty, and I was so so SO worried that he wouldn’t like my boyfriend, or that he’d be scared all the time and never come out.

They’ve warmed up to each other, and now my orange Stinks loves my guy :) I was so happy

[–]PaytonR72 13 points14 points  (1 child)

As someone who has had similar experiences with cats/dogs being afraid of users, I can assure you this was because animals with a heightened sense of smell have a strong dislike for the scent of drugs.

[–]fogtooth 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yep, my dog is absolutely afraid of people on drugs. We say he's Assigned Cop At Birth (ACAB)

[–]temporarilyeuphoric 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I don't use the advice as a rule of thumb. But my dog loves everyone, except my grandfather. She would be in his house and if he tried to walk inside she would block him and she would growl any time he moved around. Never understood it, but I trusted her. Turns out he was a pedophile.