Dogs.
(No, this isn't a commentary on Michael Vick. However, while I have the opportunity, I'd like to say that Vick makes flesh the quote "a fool and his money are soon parted.")
Dogs get on my nerves. Oh, not all of them, or even most of them. As a matter of fact I love dogs…just not the ones who have idiot humans in charge of their existence.
Since the first week of August, I have made it my business to take a power walk 5-6 days a week for a certain distance. I've lost ten pounds since then.
The first time that I walked this particular distance, it took me 62 minutes, however, just this Saturday, it took 55 minutes. I would guess that the distance is roughly 3.5 miles.
I live in a lower- to middle- middle-class neighborhood. Nice, if old, houses. Manicured yards. Mostly black and Hispanic American residents, along with at least one white American and at least one Korean-American. Some blocks have fences in the front yards, some don't (only one resident on my street has the front yard fenced off and that fence has been in existence for some thirty-five years.)
When I walk, dogs bark at me, of course. But, for the most part, these dogs bark at me from behind gates that keep them from chasing me as I exercise.
What ticks me off is not only the dogs that get loose but the attitude of the owners when I threaten to pepper-spray or bust a cap in said dog.
Last week I was chased by a Chihuahua. Don't laugh. Would you like get bitten by one of those little buggers?
The owner, obviously roused from his bed by the dog's barking, came out to "reign the dog in." The owner--who could have benefited from some sort of exercise himself-- had obviously merely slipped on a pair of shorts in order to come outside without being arrested. The man called the dog and it broke off its attack.
But when I resumed walking, the dog began to chase me again.
Me: "Dude, could you get your dog?"
Dude: "Could you wait until I come outside?"
Me: thinking "hey, you fat bast*rd, you're already outside, but your dog is still chasing me," but saying, "I'm trying to exercise here, but your dog is still chasing me!!"
Short version of the story: he flipped me off--even after I tried to make nice. So I called the cops on him. I don't walk by his house anymore.
Can a person walk down a sidewalk without being chased by a dog or without having to put up with a dog's irresponsible and obnoxious owner?
UPDATE: 53 minutes this morning. No dogs.
