This morning I had a heart-stopping moment…
Now that I have to be at work by 9am (don’t get me started…), I’m getting up super early. And these days it’s so early that it’s before sunrise. Since it’s dark, I turn on Baxter’s collar light so he can see. We went for our morning walk and headed down Wolfe.
Let me back up for a moment. The first week that I got Baxter, I took him for a morning walk. We headed down Wolfe and I noticed a woman and a small dog walking on the other side of the street. I smiled to myself enjoying the nice morning and the people happily walking their dogs.
All of a sudden, these four dogs (2 big and 2 small) came running from the office park across the street and towards this woman. She snatched up her dog and started walking in the opposite direction. Then I heard this woman from the office park area yelling for the dogs.
I was totally thrown. What would I have done in that situation? I can pick Baxter up, but he’s too big to be snatched up. Also, it’s wasn’t clear that the dogs were unfriendly, but I suppose certainly unsettling to see 4 of them, off-leash, coming for your dog.
Then I was really annoyed at this woman. She lives in an apartment two buildings down from this office. The office park has a little garden area in front of it, so she hangs out there while the dogs sniff around, do their business, and play. I’ve also seen her in the parking lot throwing a tennis ball for the dogs. First of all, it’s illegal to have your dogs off-leash. Second of all, Wolfe is NOT a little road. It is a major 5-lane street with quite a lot of traffic.
Since then, I’ve seen the dogs running along the street often. I’ve never seen the dogs go into the street, but it’s still unsettling to see. Plus, there’s a fire station almost right across the street, and police cars often drive on Wolfe. I even saw a cop drive by once when the dogs were running on the sidewalk. Has she never been cited or spoken to?
A couple of weeks ago I ran into Tyler and his mom while we were walking on Wolfe. I don’t know where they live, but I see them from time to time. Tyler is a really sweet little dog. She told me that the dogs came running across the street to her once! She screamed at the woman, “control your dogs!” I was shocked since I’d never seen them do that, and it’s clearly the most dangerous part of this whole scenario.
Back to this morning.
We’re walking along in the faint pre-dawn light at 6:45am. It’s early, but there’s still traffic on Wolfe. Suddenly I hear barking and realize it’s the 4 dogs. They are in the parking lot. Maybe they heard Baxter’s collar and spotted his light. But one of the big dogs started running towards us. Then all the dogs started running towards us. The woman started yelling at her dogs.
I thought they’d stop at the street, but sure enough, 3 of them ran INTO THE STREET. I was completely frozen. A thousand thoughts were going through my head like “they won’t run into the street”, “but Tyler’s mom said she saw them do it once”, “should i try to pick up Baxter?”.
One of the little dogs came up the fastest and ended up smack dab in the middle of the street. Then of course all these cars show up. The little dog ALMOST GOT SQUISHED- literally would have been hit if the driver hadn’t stopped. The other little dog and the big dog didn’t come into the street as far and the car coming for them saw them sooner.
The woman finally got them out of the street and then Baxter and I continued on our walk. But I was totally freaked out. I heard the woman call out, “sorry!”
“Sorry”? “SORRY”???? YOUR DOGS ALMOST FREAKING GOT KILLED BEFORE OUR VERY EYES! How about you DON’T let them play off-leash on a MAJOR STREET??
During my walk, I kept thinking about how I had totally frozen and watched the entire event. Should I have done something? Maybe shined my flashlight on the dogs to either stun them from running or to illuminate them further for the drivers? Or would that have just distracted everyone and dogs would have gotten hit?
I can only be grateful that nothing bad happened. Meanwhile I don’t remember hearing Baxter whine during any of this. Usually he whines when he hears and sees other dogs. Maybe he was smart enough to think, “What the hell. Are those dumb dogs about to run into the street?” Some people should not own dogs.
