Running With The Dogs

By Karen McNew
WSLS10 Anchor
Published: February 22, 2008

Let me begin with the fact that I love dogs.. cats and all animals… but when I’m running and they are running at me… let’s just say it’s not my favorite experience and is becoming a regular happening every few months.

As I was training for the Star City Half Marathon in November… my husband and I were running in a nearby neighborhood when all of the sudden I saw a flash of yellow and brown out of the corner of my left eye… before I knew it I was eyeball to eyeball with the pavement… a full grown and very energetic boxer had literally knocked my legs out from under me… I would have laughed if it hadn’t scared me so and hurt.. I will say I was pretty frustrated..  the owner called for his dogs and tried to get them to come.. the yellow lab with the boxer had no interest in me and Matt… I guess they just wanted to play.. everytime I run by that house even still I look to my left to see if I can prepare a little in case the dogs are making a run for me again.

Today… I’m on a run in the same neighborhood but a different part… I am listening to my iPod and all of the sudden I see two dark very fast moving shaggy objects out of the right corner of my eye.  It caught me off guard.. I stopped my music and heard two shaggy full size long haired daschunds with sharp bright white teeth taunting me from the side of the road.  The owner of the dogs was saying something to me that I couldn’t understand over the barking.. I just kind of kept running with a fake plastered smile on my face… the dogs got closer and I imagined them tearing into my ankles like chicken bones.. they hovered around me.. I made out some of what their owner was saying..."They’ll probably stop at the mailbox...” All I could think was.. What if they don’t?  For a split second I was scared of these two little doggies that would have been very cute if it weren’t for all the teeth distracting me… Finally, they got tired of me and ran back toward their house…

I wonder sometimes if animals communicate.. I can just hear them now… “Boy we sure scared her good...” The other one letting out a little weinie dog laugh… either way I was so relieved to be out of doggie danger I just kept pace and kept moving. 

Not sure if there is a lesson to be learned here.. perhaps one of patience for me..