Florida dog owners fear flying menace - Yahoo! News

"Some northwest Florida residents are worried because they believe hawks are swooping down from the sky and attacking their small dogs."

This isn't as weird as it sounds. Earlier this year I watched a large hawk - massive wing span - swoop down on my dog Snowy at a nearby park. (I was playing volleyball; Snowy was off her leash, just basking in the sun.) The hawk got within about four feet of the dog, then backed off at the last minute, obviously thinking better of the entire idea when it realized that Snowy wasn't a small animal. (Snowy weighs about 50 pounds, so the hawk miscalculated somewhere along the line.) I suppose that if Snowy had been a tiny dog the hawk would have completed the swoop. Snowy wasn't agitated by the incident at all because she never realized what was going on, but I was nervous so I went to my car and got my jumbo-head driver out of the golf bag, resolving to send the hawk about 270 yards out of its way if it decided to make another pass. There was no reason for me to worry. The hawk just flew off, searching more appropriate prey.