My 4-Legged Frustrations

Please allow me to vent just a bit. This may be lengthy…and might not make sense because I am ANGRY!!! Okay…most of you know…I run 6 days a week. Preferably outside. The past month or so I have braved the cold…and the last couple of weeks have been nice at 7am. My runs are a stress relief for me…a time to enjoy my surroundings and just enjoy life (as cheesy as it sounds). Most of you that know me well…know I’m not a fan of big dogs. Mainly because it drives me crazy that they try to sniff the private region, and are tall enough to do so. I have to do this weird dance to get them to STAY AWAY. But I’m not scared of dogs…it just weirds me out that they do that, and makes me rather uncomfortable. But today…dogs just aren’t my friend!!! This morning on my run I was about half way done…and saw a loose dog wandering around ahead of me. And HE WAS BIG! Now I really can’t stand stray dogs. You never know if they are nice or mean or what. Not to mention…I am always running…so it makes them scared or whatever and they usually just follow you. With small dogs I usually just stop and can get them to go away…or I can just outrun them because they have small legs. But with bigger dogs…it doesn’t work. The faster I run…the more they want to follow me…and they can DEFINITELY keep up. But this dog looked mean. So I thought I would turn around and do a longer run…thinking when I get back to this spot in 9 minutes hopefully he will be gone. Well…he wasn’t. I had already lengthened my run, so I slowed way down…tried not to make any noise…then when I was parallel to where he was…I gunned it…for about a half a mile. Mind you…it’s 38 degrees and my lungs start to burn because of all that cold air. I keep looking back and he is running…right…towards me. I can’t stop sprinting…so I basically kill myself…make it home in 1 piece…and thank God he never got close to me and didn’t harm me. Now…if this was the only time it happened it probably wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But since I have lived in my house…which is now a year and 3 months…this has probably happened 20 times. I think that averages about once every three weeks. Now let me say…previous to this…in the past 8 or so years…I have probably only encountered 4 or 5 dogs. Can you start to see my frustration?!?!?! It’s my dang neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods that I run in. Last week…I saw a wolf/coyote off in a distance…and about 2 minutes later the same dog I saw today. BIG…BLONDE…MUTT…that looks like he’s a cross between a bulldog and a Labrador. That day…I had to change my course COMPLETELY and run on the main road that has no shoulder so I had to run on the all-terrain next to the whizzing cars. My knees did not appreciate that! Now…the wolf/coyote is a different beast…but all these dogs running around…WHY THE FREAK AREN’T THEY IN SOMEONE’S BACK YARD…or TIED UP TO A TREE?!?!?! It drives me batty that people just let their DANG dogs run around free. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR….this really makes me mad.

I will end it with a story. It’s not a happy story. When I still lived in California I encountered a very interesting situation. I was running a rather regular course, and saw about 6 people standing in a yard with a golden retriever next to them. I saw the golden retriever wasn’t on a leash, but I figured since he was with his family he would be fine. So I continued to run. I ran by them…waved at the family and kept going. About 10 seconds later…the golden retriever must have thought my calf looked like a juicy chicken drumstick because he BIT…MY…CALF. IN SHOCK AND PAIN…I stopped running turned around to a LAUGHING family. Wait…what just happened?!?!? Let’s recap. First of all…a GOLDEN RETRIEVER…the nicest of nice dogs bites my calf. Then the family is LAUGHING?!?!?! They don’t run to me…to see if I’m okay…they don’t scold the dog…just laugh. The dog is just standing there staring at me. (And no he didn’t bite hard enough that it broke skin…thank goodness.) So I did what any upset person would do. I kicked him as HARD AS I COULD…he yelped…I turned around…and ran away. The family stopped laughing.

I’m sorry all of you dog lovers out there…but obviously this is a touchy subject with me. And PLEASE…I BEG OF YOU…don’t let your dogs roam outside…poor innocent runners like me have to deal with it…and honestly…it’s JUST NOT FAIR. Okay…done ranting.