We all sneeze- even animals sneeze.  But have you ever really stopped to listen to or watch the different ways sneezes come out?  Some are barely audible, some erupt like a volcano.  Some, not to be too graphic, are messy – those are usually the ones that sneak up on you when you have both hands full and absolutely no chance of reaching a hanky or Kleenex in time to contain the damage, or even of stuffing your nose in your elbow. 

Here’s a YouTube of a baby elephant sneezing that I love.  Poor little guy startled himself silly.

The poor pit bull we had when I was a kid would sneeze so hard he’d bang his nose on the floor, which would then cause him to sneeze again and again, usually until someone would take pity on him and grab his head to keep his nose off the floor and interrupting the cycle.

My Dad would occasionally sneeze so loudly that he’d startle our Schipperke/cocker mix awake, and she’d growl in disgust at him before stalking off to a quieter room to finish her nap.

Search “Sneezes” on YouTube and you can come up with all kinds of sneezes from both animals and people.  The best kind are the ones where the sneeze sneaks up and catches the sneezer totally unaware.  Of course, in that case its always best not to be in the line of fire. 

When I get a sneezing spell, my husband invariably asks “sniffing pepper again?”  Sometimes the answer is “yes.”  My Mother, and probably my grandmother, did that for stuffy noses.  They’d sprinkle some pepper in their hand and take a deep breath, Kleenex in hand.  If that doesn’t make you start sneezing immediately, then your nose is really stuffed up!  I learned the hard way not to sneeze too enthusiastically.  Getting a grain of pepper up your nose is a guaranteed way to sneeze a whole lot more than you ever wanted to.