Thursday, November 19, 2009

Chomp!

You know how I was running at the park and through our old neighborhood before boot camp these last couple of months? Well, boot camp's moved to a gym so I don't have that option anymore, but I'm running a 5k this Saturday and I wanted to get a practice run in this week so I did the run on Monday.

I ran the same route I always do, which took me past our old house. The neighbors' dog, Bailey, was outside. They have an invisible fence and it's not unusual for her to follow me around the edge of the yard as I go past their house. They're on a corner lot so Bailey was able to "track" me for quite a ways.

If I didn't know Bailey, I would've been scared of her. She was barking with gusto and lunging at me. She's not a big dog, but her attitude made up for her size.

I noticed that she was close to and, at times, on the sidewalk. I didn't notice if she had her collar on - between her being black, the collar's transmitter being black, and the fact that it was full-on dark except for streetlights, I wasn't the best eyewitness.

My plan was just to ignore her and get past the yard. She didn't like me running so close to her house; no problem, I'd be past it in a few seconds. Well, Bailey had other ideas.

When I reached the edge of the yard, Bailey leapt up and tried to bite me! I say "tried" because she didn't tear my pants nor did she break the skin. However, I definitely felt her intentions and I have the bruise to prove it.

I believe the technical term for the location of the bite is "saddlebag."













{I'm sorry for the upper leg shot. Listen, for the blog's sake, I'd much rather she'd gotten me on my more toned, slightly less white calf, but I wasn't that lucky so neither are you/your eyes.}

Pretty impressive, huh? {The bruise, not the fishbelly skin.}












Like I said, I couldn't tell if Bailey had her collar on or not. I called the owner the next day and told her what happened. She was very apologetic and said, "Yeah, I've been telling Jerry we need to keep the collar on her." Ya think?!

They're lucky this happened to me: someone who knows them and their dog. If I were a stranger, I probably would've called animal control.

Call me a glutton for punishment, but I plan to run over there again to make sure they are keeping Bailey's collar on. I know from living there that lots of people walk by their house and there are a number of kids in the immediate area. I would feel terrible if I found out that someone else got bitten.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness, that's awful! Thank you for letting them know what happened and going back to check on her transmitter. I too will be checking when I walk by with my precious baby and almost-precious dog. I always thought she was all bark and no bite...but I guess that's not always the case! Good luck with the 5k - better you than me!
- Gina

Anonymous said...

P.S. I guess the more correct term would be "semi-precious" dog. Stop by and see us sometime!
- Gina again

Gma said...

Rather irresponsible when you were a neighbor and seems they've not changed much, eh?

You are gutsy, running in the dark and w/o something to protect you --ARE YOU NUTS???!!!!