So I’m walking my dogs the other day down a road I usually avoid because there is a house there inhabited by assholes who apparently have no idea how to be responsible dog owners. Usually it’s the little white dog that charges down the dirt driveway to try and attack. Because that dog is so loud in announcing its intentions, I have time to back up screaming and run the other way while looking for a branch or stick to defend myself and my dogs if need be.
But this day it was the yellow lab mix that was loose. That dog doesn’t announce himself. One minute I’m walking along, enjoying an Anchorage spring and daydreaming and the next minute I’m confronted by a dog that has snuck through the grass and leaped out barking and snarling. I don’t know how I didn’t have a heart attack. And no matter how much I screamed and gestured, the dog kept coming. Needless to say, none of his owners in the house up the driveway bothered to respond to my screams. They must have been busy swilling beer or something.
A man getting in his truck in the house across the road came running out and told the dog to go home. The dog did. The man clearly knew the dog.
Before I could collect myself enough to ask him who the people were that were so irresponsible, he jumped in his truck and drove away. Clearly he didn’t want to have that conversation.
I’ve reported this to animal control and been told I have to bring a camera and take pictures to prove the dog was off his property. That’s not easy to do when you are trying to control two dogs on a leash while a barking, distinctly unfriendly dog comes at you. I’ve spoken to other people who walk this route with their dogs. All have similar stories. One man related that the lab mix cost his dog 100 stitches. And yet the dogs continue to roam freely, terrorizing anyone who dares to walk by on the road.
My friends tell me to bring pepper spray to spray the dogs. My feeling is that it isn’t the dog’s fault but the fault of the asshole owners who allow the animals the freedom to not only menace others, but possibly get injured by someone who decides to bring a gun along for the walk.
This is just so wrong and there seems to be nothing anyone can do. How sad.