Animals of virtually all stripes have minds and personalities of their own. My cat is perfectly friendly 99.4% of the time, but every so often he will bite my feet or swat at my legs if I pass him. He doesn't ever chase me to do it and he's not growling, hissing or upset - in fact, I can often reach down and pick him up, and he's placid - but yeah, I don't get it. I know that my cat's unpredictable, but it doesn't bother me because the vast majority of the things my cat might do aren't harmful. Modelling behaviour by repetition, so to speak. That's probably not a great term, but it's ultimately down to trust. You know the cat is capable of slashing your face wide open while you sleep, or shitting on your pillow, but if you've had him for six and a half years and he's never done it, chances are good that he never will.

And for me, plants...just don't do stuff. A spiny plant has spines, a leafy one has leaves, a pitcher plant has fluid inside it to trap and digest tiny insects. Your explanation is enlightening, but I confess that I still don't get it. Again though, I'm not dismissing it or attempting to denigrate it. If I knew you in real life I wouldn't ask you to help me with my yardwork or invite you on a nature walk. lol

I used to have that plant thing.  Thanks for reminding me.  Oh and technically it is possible for a ceeling fan's paddle to break off and harpoon you.  Of course, the motor would need to be warn out and vibrate the housing so much so that it could act sort of like a marteeny shaker.  That's this forums punishment for reminding me of the plant thing.  lol!

@30
Ah, see, that's the thing though.  Everyone loves to say how mathematical biology is, and I'm sure that if we try really hard we can find plants where they all have 4 leaves and a stem and it's all very nice.  But that's not actually how this works out with plants, that only works with animals, really.  Plants do all sorts of stuff all the time, hell you can even control when/where they'll grow new branches if you try.  Your dog's not going to suddenly have the start of a 5th leg in the middle of its chest because it got a small cut, or something.  Grab the dog's paw or whatever and you can estimate with a high degree of accuracy where the rest of the dog is, how big it is, etc etc etc. and these will be accurate.  I suspect that some people aren't wired to notice those sorts of irregularities and just sort of push differences down into a category called "huh" or "irrelevant" or something and that's the end of it for them and plants, fungi, etc. are suddenly these cool things where isn't biology so regular and mathematical because I'm ignoring the 90% right now.  I suspect that if I could suddenly see tomorrow, this would mostly correct itself because at that point you always know what's coming up, for lack of a better way to put it.

But to be on point, maybe knowing that I'm not even going as far as "plants are poisonous! O god" and would not, in fact, like to stick my hand in your run-of-the-mill garden shrub is helpful to Meatbag.  I'm fine with them, same room no problem, sure, but given the choice I'm sure as hell not interacting with it.

For the ceiling fan I could say that it's happened because of an accident happened to me with a ceiling fan when I was 3 years old. Which still left some traces of it on my hed

I was sure my fear of insects got to do with blindness and this topic proved it.
Well actually I could agree with most people here, I am not afraid of all insects but rather the stings. In fact I am afraid of much more things because of the unknown factor. I mean if I am sure it's a fly, then I am not afraid but I am rather annoyed like any human in the world. But the thing is you are never sure what is it, interestingly enough though I never had a bad experience or something, at least not yet and I hope I don't, lol.
But that brings other fears or phobias or whatever you wanna call it, so I am also afraid of plants and of sitting on the grass, only because plants and grass have insects, not that I fear the plants themselves.
Same goes with any other animal or moving thing, I can simply put it, I am afraid of the unknown and specially that I can't see whether it's coming towards me or not, although it is easier to tell that in case of animals.
Don't get me wrong though, I actually own a dog, and I probably tried all domestic animals people could keep at home before, Cats, turtles, fish, birds and forgot what else. So not really sure if my fears aren't logical since for me they seem so justified, so it's hard to overcome them.

Wow... for a bunch of hardcore gamers, we are a bunch of wimps, aren't we?

Jade: You're mostly right about plants, but have you ever seen Rosemary? I'm te worst gardener in the world, and my Rosemary is so out of control it grew through the pot it was planted in, down through gravel, and a thick plastic mesh, to embed itself in the ground. They can absolutely explode given the right conditions.

FWIW, my fears are dark water and seaweed, although I suspect this last is more generically: "Slimy shit".

As a child, there was a toilet we used to have to use at a campsite we stayed in. It would regularly leek and flood, and in addition to not being able to use the toilet for a while, it would make everything smell of damp, and leave a big dark stain all over the floor which I could still see.

When I was about 10 I fell in a canal. Reflexes kicked in and I shut my eyes as I fell... luckily closed my mouth too or I'd likely be dead given the state of Coventry's canal.

Anyways, when I opened my eyes again I was up to my neck in dark water, with my feet slowly sinking into slimy shit at the bottom. Turn 180, there's a tall dark wall in front of me. I got out and didn't die, but still, even reading about underground caves, the sea near cliffs, all of that makes my pulse rise.

Let's face it: We're all fucked. We just need to decide how bothered we are about it haha.

Also, moths can go infest the underwear of my enemies when I get some. Bloody horrible vicious things. They make cats seem placid and predictable.

@36
Actually iirc cockroaches are pretty clean, or at least not more dirty than other bugs.  And grasshoppers are considered food (I tried it, it was good).

@38
Being clear that I'm not saying "go get a dog" or something, it is very much possible to get a dog that's very sedate and just wants to cuddle and snore the day away.  Also, lab breaks finger by pulling on leash says a lot of things about the owner, I'm afraid, not the dog.  Can only make that happen if you don't hold the leash well.  They can pull like that, but if you learned how to get a good grip on the leash, which you should have been maintaining at all times for exactly this reason, worst that happens is you get pulled over.

I see a lot of people in this thread saying that they're afraid of dogs but this is irrational.  You shouldn't be afraid of them as such, but you shouldn't ever trust a strange dog unless you know what you're doing and have had a lot of experiences with dogs before.  I don't mind strange dogs, but I've had that experience, in general I know what I'm doing.  Don't necessarily put strange dogs in the fear category, but definitely put them in the respect category, if that makes sense.  They're really usually more afraid of you than you are of them, believe it or not, but at the end of the day all they really know how to do with fear is run away or strike out at you.  And most people screw it up so badly: dogs don't read eye contact and a smile as "he's friendly", they read it as "my, what big teeth he has, and he's challenging me, o no".

I guess my point is that people who are afraid of dogs look at those of us who are like "wolfhound, must have" and get this funny idea that they're safe and the fear is irrational, and those of us who have dogs and know what we're doing are more like it's safe because he's trained and I've put work into making sure he's a good boy.  They certainly don't tear your throat out or anything and most instances are definitely instigated by something obvious that should have been stopped before the dog attacked, but it's very easy to screw this up and end up with what's basically an overexcited, under socialized coward with teeth.

I heard a thing, dunno if its true or not but every time a fly lands, it pisses, shits and pukes on the surface it lands on... so... bleh.

No what the sad thing is?  I can't even hear the stupid things anymore, not even with hearing aids on.  I'm screwed!