Not related to companion animals, but instead animals that make brief companionship with you. Share your random animal encounters here!
Today while bringing in the dumpster and recycling I accidentally frightened a field mouse of some sort that had been resting under one of them. It skittered out into the road. I embarked on two campaigns immediately afterward: one to photograph it (which I did), and another to scare it out of the road before any cars came along (while avoiding being hit myself). Thankfully the road wasn't busy and no cars showed up, but I made a fool of myself in trying to scare the mouse over to the other side. I remember picking some random plant stalk and attempting to throw it in the direction of the critter. The plant fell two feet short and it didn't move it all. I then made "hssh!" noises at it like one would a cat that is stealing one's chair, and it still did not move. Eventually it just got bored and ran into the neighbor's lawn.
Today while bringing in the dumpster and recycling I accidentally frightened a field mouse of some sort that had been resting under one of them. It skittered out into the road. I embarked on two campaigns immediately afterward: one to photograph it (which I did), and another to scare it out of the road before any cars came along (while avoiding being hit myself). Thankfully the road wasn't busy and no cars showed up, but I made a fool of myself in trying to scare the mouse over to the other side. I remember picking some random plant stalk and attempting to throw it in the direction of the critter. The plant fell two feet short and it didn't move it all. I then made "hssh!" noises at it like one would a cat that is stealing one's chair, and it still did not move. Eventually it just got bored and ran into the neighbor's lawn.