Animal-related: Dogs. Yeah. Tell me all about it.
It's not severe, as far as phobias go. I can deal with it. I can definitely handle it well enough to get through vet school, before specializing in something that does not involve dogs (or going off to do zoo med, which I'm seriously considering).
I'm even okay with most large breeds and large mutts; once I've made positive first-contact with the dog, I'm fine. But I have a real problem with small dogs; I don't trust them not to bite. And there are some larger breeds that make me very uneasy--Rotties, Pit Bulls, Dobermans, Akitas, Huskies, Rhodesian Ridgebacks--which is kind of crazy because my kid sister and BIL have a Dobie and a pibble, and they're wonderful dogs.
Other: Clowns. Mimes. People in mascot costumes or fursuits. MF'ing furries.
I'm not sure I'd call it a phobia, because I don't have a desire to flee from them. But they do bring up an intense, visceral response, and my first impulse is to attack. (It's also my second, third, and fourth impulse.)
Get me too close to a clown, and it takes a conscious act of will for me to not cause him bodily injury. I joke about it--"If one insists on dressing like a pinata, they should expect to be treated accordingly"--but it's a very powerful desire.
As for furries, I didn't even know what they were the first time I saw some nerdy kid wearing pointy fox-like ears and a tail on campus; all I knew was that every time I saw him walking between classes I wanted to go punch him in the face. He wore the damned things every day, too, so eventually I started taking alternate routes to avoid him.
Thousands of bright green packets of sperm literally lit up the water. TMF.
