I have a piece of code that works, but when I add use strict I get an error "Can't use string ("0") as a HASH ref while "strict refs" in use"

I comment out use strict and its fine.

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
use strict;
#use warnings;

my %input;
$input{"1"} = 0;
$input{"2"} = 1;
$input{"3"}->{a} = "ah";
$input{"3"}->{b} = "bee";
$input{"4"} = 'string';

jscript(%input);

sub jscript {
    my %input = @_;
    my $total = scalar(keys(%input));
    my $subtotal = $total--;
    my $cnt = 0;
    my $count = 0;
    my ($j,$NEST);

    print "Javascript literal\n\[ ";
    foreach my $number (sort keys %input) {
        $count++;
        unless ($input{$number} =~ /HASH/) {
           if ($count < $total) {
               print "\"$input{$number}\"\, ";
           } else {
               print "\"$input{$number}\"";
           }
        }

        foreach my $subject (keys %{ $input{$number} }) {
            if ($cnt == 0 ) { $j = '"'; } 
            if ($cnt > 0 )  { $j = ', "';}
            $NEST .= "${j}${subject}\" : \"$input{$number}{$subject}\"
+";
            $cnt++;
        }
        if ($cnt > 0 && $count < $subtotal) {
            print "\{ $NEST \}\, ";
            $cnt = 0;
            $total++;
            $NEST = "";
        } elsif ($cnt > 0 && $count == $subtotal) {
            print "\{ $NEST \} ";
            $cnt = 0;
            $NEST = "";
        }

    }
    print " \]\n";
}
[download]

Script output without strict, which is perfect

Javascript literal
[ "0", "1", { "a" : "ah", "b" : "bee" }, "string" ]
[download]

Script output with strict

Javascript literal
Can't use string ("0") as a HASH ref while "strict refs" in use at ./r
+.pl line 37.
[ "0",
[download]

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