Welcome back, courageous readers. Today we’ll dive into the second half of the first episode, in which we find Courage and Muriel sitting in a park on a park bench. A very pleasant day for any dog and dog owner…

… that is, unless the dog has reasons to be afraid of everything.

This episode establishes a running theme of Courage being afraid of various animals, a theme which is particularly realistic and grounded in the theory I’ve been demonstrating, and stars the lovably charismatic Cajun Fox.

As this is one of the more iconic episodes of the show, I shouldn’t have to tell you that this nefarious character wants to capture and cook Muriel into a delicious dish known only as Cajun Granny Stew. Mr. Fox has got a cook-off to win and he’s as ambitious as he is suave.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways that Courage tries to stop Mr. Fox and his nefarious culinary plans.

This is not exactly realistic, of course – we’re not even going to talk about Courage’s extensive use of Hammerspace to justify his lack of pockets or pouches – but it’s unlikely that he figured out aviation, optics, and how to construct a slot machine. Then, of course, this aberration to the laws of physics happens.

Much like the last episode and most second-act drama in this show, we can presume that none of this escalation happens outside of the fearful conclusions drawn by Courage. “What if that Fox takes her? What if he tries to eat her?” These are the lengths he’d go to to protect and save Muriel – she’s his everything.

We should of course also keep in mind that it’s very likely that Cajun Fox is simply what he appears to be – a fox.

Dogs will bark at most any animals, especially something as big as a fox. Consider also that as a scared rescue dog, anything like this would not only be terrifying but also a threat to his new family and the stability they provide. The fox trying to steal and eat Muriel is very much an extension of Courage’s fears – but, can you blame him? Foxes are predators and much as scavengers, and it’s possible that he even sees the Fox more than once during his day at the park, like it was trying to steal her again or casing the joint for weaknesses.

It’s also worth mentioning that Muriel falls asleep while at the park bench and stays asleep for most of the episode. As such, Courage doesn’t have the support and comfort he would normally have from her, and his fearful imagination gets away from him. She even wakes up and says “Oh! …Where am I?” Seems very much like she simply fell asleep and woke back up. They probably never even left that park bench – wouldn’t her reaction to waking up in a cave, above a cauldron, covered in spices and flour be just a little more alarmed?

Contrast this with an event from the very same episode while Muriel is still awake : the episode begins with her feeding the birds that have gathered at the park bench, to which Courage says, “I don’t like birds… They always make fun of me.” It is after this comment that we, the viewers, actually see the birds transition from this…

… to this.

If this isn’t an indicator of the show being from Courage’s warped point of view, I don’t know what is. Muriel doesn’t react to the birds pointing and laughing, and them being judgmental and mean to Courage only confirms what his upbringing has instilled in him. Courage’s fear doesn’t run away from him very far in this instance, but of course comes from not having had any stability in his most fragile stage of development. As such he has very little esteem and only has fears of negative outcomes. Muriel’s adoption, thankfully, saved him from being hopeless just as any rescue of a dog in need does. No dog appreciates love like a rescue dog because they never forget where they came from – what things could have still been.

This is actually the first instance of a recurring theme – not just that animals are terrifying to Courage and should not be trusted, but specifically – birds. There are more bird-villains and bird-monsters in this show than any other kind of monster, because of course there would be. Courage is going to see a lot of birds on the farm at Nowhere – ducks, chicken, geese – but he hasn’t a clue about what they are, where they come from, or how they fly for that matter. It’s unsurprising then that most of them are monsters to him, and particularly aliens; strange foreign life forms that fly down out of the sky and are horrifying and unusual?

You’d think that was an alien, too, but I’m getting ahead of myself. The Chicken From Outer Space is still a few episodes away.

All in all, it’s clear that even a day in the park can be stressful for a dog like Courage.