Ollie has been a pretty even-keeled kind of guy when it comes to being afraid. He's appropriately cautious of the stairs, for example, and dogs he doesn't know. But he's not really afraid. He just wants time to check things out, figure out what's going on, and then he warms up into his normally effusive self. But Thursday, when Wes was working in the lawn, we witnessed his first fear -- the lawnmower. Oliver watched us mow the lawn last summer, usually from the back door, with great interest, but he was never out amongst it while it was running. I didn't see the whole thing go down like Wes did, but he said that Ollie got a little nervous when he pulled the mower down into the yard. Then, as soon as Wes turned it on, Ollie fell apart. He was sobbing and screaming and looking for the first available adult to pick him up. He ended up sitting with me in a chair on the porch, safely in my lap, while Wes mowed. He was rapt for the duration of the mowing, watching Wes go back and forth across the lawn, but he did not want to budge from my lap. I enjoyed the cuddliness that I so rarely get these days and talked to him about what Wes was doing. As soon as the mower was put away, he was willing to get up and go run around again.
He had a mini-meltdown again yesterday afternoon. We were sitting on the steps to the garage with the door to the garage open when Wes came home. The sight of the Subaru coming at him scared him again, and he got upset until Wes got out of the car and calmed him.
It's good to see that Oliver is appropriately afraid of some of the most obviously dangerous things around the house. If I could extend this good sense to being less outgoing with perfect strangers in the park, I'd be set.
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