Sunday, September 17, 2006

another nail bites the dust

I had beautiful nails once. It's taken me quite a long time to be able to say that. Growing up I had a picking habit. I'd pick at my nails until they were nothing more than nubs on my fingers. I would get nervous...pick. I would be bored...pick. I would just pick any old time. And then, one day many months ago, they were longer. And I didn't feel the urge to pick. So I stopped.

Last week one was about to start splitting so I trimmed it. A few days later it's next door neighbor was doing the same thing, so again the trimmers came out. Today, a dog decided to attack Josie while we were on our hike up at Powell Butte and as I was grabbing this dog and yanking it forcefully away from trying to eat my dog...the third in the row got snagged and ripped. It's okay though, small price to pay when it comes to saving my dog (although she was fine and not even bothered by the episode).

We were just walking up the butte towards our normal route. All of a sudden a yellow lab (friendly dogs, no?) came bounding down through the brush (it's switchbacks the whole way up). We said hello to it and he (yeah, unaltered) started sniffing Josie aggressively. She's not one for dogs to run up her booty so she grumbled as she normally does. Now, usually, other dogs hear it and back off of her. Not this one. He took it to mean "let's rumble" and proceeded to try to eat my dear Josie. Thankfully he had a harness with his leash still attached. Kev grabbed Josie's harness and I grabbed the leash on the other dog and seriously dragged his ass away. He was snarling and yanking, trying to get to my girl. NOT ON MY WATCH! His owner came down, apologizing. She took ahold of his leash, but not very tightly because all of a sudden, he was at it again. Kev grabbed him this time and yanked, and gave me his leash. I again, dragged his ass back up the hill to his owner. As we passed them he was just going nuts. She was saying, "you're supposed to be a nice doggie..."

My girl, she rocks even more now in my eyes. She had no injuries (you can imagine me patting her down to make sure, no?) and was not phased as we walked on. We had to pass them one more time, but this time we leashed up and made sure the woman heard us coming through so she could be ready.

5 comments:

Jack K. said...

None are so blind as those who will not see.

Somebody should leash owners who do not take responsibility for their pets. Is it any wonder animals get a bum rap.

Perhaps we need to set some rules for pet ownership and outlaw those owners who do not follow the rules. The penalty could be to put into a closely confined area with poorly trained or maltreated animals.

How's that for being a nice guy?

Glad to know our darling Josie is none the worse for wear. Give her a great big granddad hug. Tee hee.

Jack K. said...

Oops! Glad to learn your nails are growing.

Sorry to learn they are splitting.

Bummer.

Persico said...

Idiot dog owners bug me. Perhaps this was just an off day for that lady and her dog, but there are certain precautions that you have to take when bringing your dog out into public.

At least Josie was okay, and sorry about the nails.

(I'm a chronic nail biter, so I can empathize.)

bronxbt said...

you are quite lucky dear josie-goodness wasn't hurt.

friends of mine lost there dog to the same type of story...

agression turned chewie and the saliva from the mean dog infected my friends to the point of no return...

sad stuff.

there ARE leash laws for a reason... and yet i betcha had you said something like that, you wouldn've been made to feel bad for saying that!

we mustn't forget that no matter what, these are animals with TEETH.

oi.

hugs to you and Josie!

B

k said...

you know my opinions on letting *any* dog run off leash...and this is just a great illustration of the point. Glad to hear that Josie was such a good sport about the whole ordeal, but what if they hadn't met up so close to you and you hadn't been able to take control of the situation? *shudder*