Sunday, February 17, 2008

Dog Attack

Glen Rose, Texas

Weather: low 43 degrees, high 60 degrees, mostly clear, winds to 15 mph

It was great to see the sun again, and have things start drying out. I know we need the rain, but when it comes, I can't wait for it to leave.

Since we have been traveling by RV, we have had two tires blow out, one on the RV and one on the truck. Each of them caused over $1500 worth of damage, in addition to the inconvenience and stress. I have started looking for a tire monitoring system that will allow us to know what is going on with our tires as we are traveling. It seems to me that it would be less expensive and safer to be able to know when a tire is having problems so we can stop and check it out before it self-destructs, causing damage to the RV or truck. I'll keep everyone posted on what I decide to do.

The road I walk on for exercise and health has all the atrributes I look for when walking. I have gotten to know several of the people that live on the street. It has very little traffic, it is a dead end street, and the dogs are kept behind fences. I don't mind a dog that is behind a fence barking at me, he is only doing his job. What I do mind is a dog or dogs coming out of a yard or running free getting after me. What is even worse is to have dogs that are accompanied by their owner getting after me, and the owner does not control them.

I was walking this afternoon when two Boston Terriers came out of a driveway and started barking at me. About the same time, their owner came out with his daughter on a bicycle. The dogs started darting at my legs, one from the front and one from the back. They sounded as though they were going to eat me alive. The owner did nothing to control them other than to tell them to come on. Of course, they ignored him. The dogs followed me for about 200 hundred yards, and I did my best to keep them from biting me.

Eventually, the dogs turned around and went back, while I continued on my walk. As I was walking back (remember, dead end street), the dogs saw me and started their attacks again. This time, they kept it up for about 300 yards, until I got tired of it and concerned that they were going to bite me. At that point, I picked up some rocks and threw them at the dogs, which made them stop. The owner decided he had better get his dogs under control, and took them home. He never apologized.

I have no problems with people having pets (we have two pets that are very low maintenance). Where I have a problem is when the people don't control them properly. Hopefully, I won't have a problem with those dogs again.

That was the high point of my day. I hope everybody else had a good day. This next week, we will be making preparartions to hit the road again. Still no decision on which way we will go. Maybe we will let it be a surprise.

More later, be safe.

Today's Town - Chattanooga, Tennessee: Choo Choo Town

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