Help! A dog is chasing me!

Today, I said to myself, “Liz, you know what? It’s Christmas break. Go walk your dog.”

Weird, right?  Who decides that they want to walk their dog out of the blue like that?

So, I leashed up my pooch, got my coat and gloves, and headed on out.  As we walked down my front steps, I strategically tried to plan which direction would be the most fun to go.  I chose left.

Bad choice.  I guess the saying choose the right also applies to walking dogs.  Who knew?

We walked past one house. Crossed the street, a couple of puddles/lakes, and made it halfway past another neighbor’s house when I saw it.

Another dog was trying to sneak up on us.  And here’s the thing: It was not a scary looking dog.

It looked like this, only awake, and growly.

My dog is a lab. A big, heavy, black lab. Not really much of a fight….but my dog is also kind of a wimp sometimes.

This other dog would not leave my dog alone. And they were both growling and baring their teeth at each other. Charming, right?  I just stood there, on my neighbors’ slush-covered lawn, holding the leash and hoping that I wouldn’t fall.

I mean, if I fell I was going to be dragged, trampled, and drenched. Lovely options for a nice afternoon stroll.

So, of course, I stood there and weighed my options.  The dogs kept fighting. My socks were getting wetter and wetter.

This walk was seeming like a worse and worse idea.

Finally, I threw a snowball at the dog I was not trying to walk. I yelled shoo! Nothing was working.  I was being held hostage in the slush by two dogs who wanted to fight.  Great.

Finally, I just gripped the leash, and started to storm home. I kept yelling at the other dog to stay, go home, and shoo, but it just kind of looked at me. Until I started crossing the street, then it came too. I made my dog run up my front walk. Into my house. Just in time. We slammed the door, and the other dog came and sat on the porch, right against the door.

I was shaking. My socks were wet. I was not a happy camper.

Neither was my dog; he wanted to get that other guy. And he wanted his walk. He didn’t forgive me for not walking him for a couple of hours.

Oops.

Being chased by a dog is not the highlight of my Christmas break, that is for sure.