Until that stupid dog chased me.

    I was just rounding the corner, and I was about 100 yards from my house. All of sudden I was startled by barking. There stood less than 10 feet away form me what can best be described as a medium sized dog. He wasn't a stray, he had a large red collar around his neck, and he looked like he was on the loose, scared, and lost.

    I don't know a lot about dogs, but from looking at him I could tell he was some kind of terrier-boxer mix.

    So there we stood staring each other down. He obviously felt that I was intruding, and he didn't trust me. My first reaction to yell "Get Home!!" but he seemed unfazed, all he did was growl, and he was showing his teeth. He meant business. He was fixing to bite me. I thought it would be a good idea to put myself into a less threatening position, so I squatted down, and held out my hand. It has been my experience that if it is a friendly dog, he will at least try to make friends. He settled down when I did that, but was having none of my friendship offer. The way he was looking at me was like he wanted to attack.

    He kept trying to get behind me. I've learned that dogs don't like eye contact, and the worst thing you can do is run. He was going for my backside, and acted like he wanted to get hold of my ankle. We started walking down the street, and he was circling around me trying to get behind me. Something got his attention, and afforded me the opportunity to get down the road ahead of him. He kept after me, and got back out in front of me, but was distracted once again by somthing up the road. I was growing tired of this. I really wasn't scared, but I was not going to contend with this animal anymore. I started looking for a weapon, but there were none to found. At last I saw a dead branch on a tree that was close enough to reach. I got hold of it.

    The dog stopped and just stared at me, growling slightly. The stick I hold was nothing all that big, but I began swishing it quickly back and forth and the dog bolted about 10 feet away and stopped and stared at me waiting to see what I would do.

    I had scared him. Now was my chance to see if I truly had the upper hand. I started running at him swishing the stick back forth screaming "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" The dog ran like crazy. Game. Set. Match. Rick wins.

    I have to wonder though... how funny must have all of that looked to somebody having their morning coffee?

~Rick