Jack Handey outside his Santa Fe home
Forewarned is forearmed, and in that spirit I sometimes try to instil a healthy fear in our visitors by telling them that Eddie's tail-wagging is a sign of aggression, and that face-licking is a precursor to going in for the kill. To date no-one has taken me seriously, but still, as the great philosopher Jack Handey once said, fear can be a useful emotion. Handey used this graphic illustration to make his point:-
"Let's say you're an astronaut on the moon and you fear that your partner has been turned into Dracula. The next time he goes out for the moon pieces, wham!, you just slam the door behind him and blast off. He might call you on the radio and say he's not Dracula, but you just say, 'Think again, bat man'."
