( First attempt at trochee ) - Bottom line work shop

First line
Fright-ened |mice sit| wa-iting. |Dogs sit |skulk-ing|. (Excellent)
Second line
Riv-er| fish swim|, know-ing| ti-gers| eat flesh. (I find it hard not to stress 'flesh)
Third line
 L e-opards| keep on| ru-nning|feel-ing| ho-rny.( Bravo)
Fourth line
 Wild horse| ga-llop|, spla-shing| wa-ter|. I changed horses...horse (one feet is needed)

But you are almost there dear Mandy. A few modifications would give you a perfect trochaic quatrain.  

Rula's scansion is correct. You are very close. A couple of things. You spelled "Trochee" incorrectly.

More importantly, when you're looking for the correct pronunciation of a word (the right number of syllables) say them to yourself as naturally as possible. Poets have a tendency to speak English just like everyone else... until they begin to read poetry. Then suddenly they start "over pronunciating" words.

E.g. "Wi-ald".

When your read your poem to check it for appropriate meter try to read it quickly. Just plow through it as though you were carrying on a quick conversation. It's not the best way to actually "read" a poem, but it will demonstrate to you any problems you may have with the meter. So don't "savor" it. Read it like prose to force the incorrect meter to rear its head.

Next, look into using the advanced formatting below the comment box. It will let you use things like bold, italics and the like. To make a word print bold, hold down controll and press "b". Same with italics. This will help you to emphasis individual words.

Stick with it. Meter is everything... it is "The Bottom Line" in poetry.

That is the only line I don't like. This is one of those rules that have so many exceptions it is hard to call it a "rule", but... a verb modifying a noun directly before it will almost always demand to be accented. The verb (swim) is the action in the sentence and begs to be louder than the noun (fish). As I said, you will find exceptions everywhere, but being aware of the possibility can save you some grief.
Otherwise, the quatrain works.
I hope you will give Dactyl a go. It really is easier than you think once you've made it over the initial hump of "hearing" it.

Here is my initial conversation concerning Dactyl and Anapest that I fished out of all that chaos just for you.
Seriously... just for you.

"Dactyl and Anapest are different in a number of ways. First, they are called “treble” (or triple) meters as they both use three syllables per foot.

However, the greatest difference from Trochee and Iamb is that in the English language it is “almost” impossible to write an entire poem in one of these meters. The term commonly used is “runaway meter”. Meaning that a poem written entirely in Dactyl or Anapest tends to “roar” through itself and sound rushed, insincere and unnatural.

This does not mean it cannot be done, but in most cases of traditional poetry these meters are used in conjunction with Trochee (Dactyl) and Iamb (Anapest).

I would still like to see quatrains written exclusively in these meters as an exercise in understanding them knowing that after the workshop few poets will use them alone.

Dactyl (Gr. “finger”) is a foot of three syllables: one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables.

“This is the / fo-rest pri- / me-val. The / mur-muring / pines and the / hem-locks.” (Longfellow, Evangeline) This verse is catalectic hexameter.

Anapest (Gr. “beaten back”) is the natural opposite: two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable.

“From his saw / pit of mouth, / from his char- / nel of maw.” (Melville, The Maldive Shark) This verse is tetrameter.

When we write the quatrains I will not insist on pentameter. A minimum of trimeter or tetrameter will suffice."

Please let this encourage you to give it a go. I will be around to help.

Much better still. Please, move on to Dactyl and know that a combination of Dactyl and Trochee is very acceptable poetically. For the workshop though, try to produce a quatrain of strict Dactyl. I want you to understand the meter before going on and mixing it with Trochee before you have it figured out will confuse the best of us as both meters begin with an accented syllable.

This is one of the few truly satisfying things I do... outside of writing my epic... and this is lots easier.