I was running one of my usual routes thru the quiet neighborhoods of Chapel Hill. Near the end of my 2 hour run, a dog rushed at me from across the street, snarling. I stopped dead in my tracks, and the dog ran right up to my legs and continued snarling and snapping. I was terrified that the beast was going to bite my leg. A woman from the yard across the street just stood there watching without saying anything. Finally, I looked up at her with a terrified expression on my face. I was furious that she wasn’t controlling her dog, or even attempting to. Then she started walking across the street and said “Don’t worry, she won’t bite you”. I exclaimed “That’s easy for you to say!” When she finally grabbed her dog, I ran off and yelled “Keep your freakin’ dog away from me!”. I was so angry at her for allowing the dog to get within an inch of my legs with those sharp teeth.
I felt terrible that I yelled at the woman, tho she certainly deserved it. It would have been better to explain to her that any dog, no matter how seemingly sweet, can attack someone who makes the dog feel threatened…that’s why the town of Chapel Hill has a leash law.
Grrrr!
Hello, thx for all,
Wow, what a flashback for me. My wife and I were training for a Tri back in late Summer/early Fall of last year. There is a dog in our neighborhood that would always threaten us growling and snarling. Then one day we rode by on our bikes and he jumped up and chomped down on my wifes leg. She was bleeding, I stopped my bike and turned back, just in time to get bitten too!
I like to think of myself as a composed, compassionate person, but that day I was yelling at the owner, and threating. It wasn’t pretty. It affects me so much to see my wife injured like that. Our county in Ky does not have a leash law. It is ridiculous, but true.
We love dogs, and our dog bit a friend a year or so ago. Now she doesn’t roam free in our house when we have guests. We saw an issue, and we took care of it. Unfortunately, several calls to Animal Control later, the dog that bit my wife hasn’t been restrained. It’s tragic, but the dog will have to injure a child or kill another pet before it is restrained. And it’s really just the human’s fault.
I carry a golf club when I jog in our neighborhood. Pitiful…
So, bottom line is, don’t feel bad. You may have curbed a future attack. And that is more important than hurting that woman’s feelings. You could have saved a neighborhood child from a bite!