Quit Bugging Me!!!!

I have a new toy. It's a bug. Specifically, it's a green bug. It's an electronic toy bug. I got it at Radio Shack the other night. It's fun, it walks and backs up if it runs into anything or if it senses a loud noise. We jokingly commented about driving Maggie crazy when we bought it. We were playing with it last night in the kitchen floor. Maggie came running to see what the buzzing noise was, then she stood there and looked confused for a while. Then when it was heading her way, she started backing up. And kept backing up. Then she started jumping up and down. At that point, we put it away since we really didn't want her to eat it. But it turned out that eating it was the last thing on her mind.

It took about 3 tries to get this picture. As soon as she sees the thing, she immediately leaves. When I started to take this picture, she was a whole lot closer to Otter. The bug is in Otter's hand.

This is about a half second later, right before she left the room! And it wasn't even turned on, just seeing it was enough for her. Silly pooch. Frasier wasn't too impressed, as you can tell - I think he's asleep. He came into the kitchen last night and watched it on the floor but then he got bored and went back outside. Not Mags!

Here's the bug. It fits in the palm of my hand. But the Magginator is afraid of it.

Oh well, maybe it will cure her of her appetite for spiders!

When Otter was little, she was afraid of bugs. Which was accidentally my fault. I was going to show her a cricket at her request. And all was fine. Until it hopped out of my hand. Right onto her head. Picture a small screaming redhead running around in circles, that's what happened. It literally took me years to get her over that! Bill still laughs over it, somewhere around 13 years later! What finally cured her of her mom/cricket induced bug phobia was the time we went to the State Fair a couple of years later and there was a man selling jewelry. He had his pet with him. It was a tarantula. I held it and showed her how it wasn't going to hurt me. But she wanted nothing to do with it. UNTIL I TOLD HER I'D PAY HER A DOLLAR! Even then, it was all the jewelry seller and I could do to get her to let the spider crawl on her hand - he figured out pretty quickly what I was trying to teach her and he didn't mind letting me use his pet. I think he was amused that I offered her money. She was scared, but that dollar was still on offer so she decided to be brave. Or bribed, whichever works. She said it tickled when it crawled onto her hand, then as soon as it was back in it's traveling case her hand was in my face and she was demanding her dollar! (Which she got, by the way). Problem solved, she stopped being afraid of bugs. Now she loves them, we regularly rescue assorted bugs and relocate them to the outside. Especially spiders! They seem to be high on her favorite list now. But I don't think we can convince Maggie that the Bug won't hurt her. I'm afraid we've scarred her for life.