Dogs can be pretty scary here sometimes. Actually a child in our organization had some mean dogs follow him while he was on his bike and it caused him to wreck INTO a barbed wire fence and mess up his hand pretty badly. This happened just a few days ago.
This is mind, I enjoy getting out on my own, and while it’s unadvisable by some people, I chose to take a bike ride to the beach and back. I took kickboxing, and self defense, and don’t worry about my safety. It’s 1.5 miles of mostly flat deserted land, so I can see would-be assailants* from VERY far away and stay aware of my surroundings.
Well, I made it out to the dunes, and turned around (I still haven’t been out to the beach in the 7 weeks I’ve been back!). I like to stop at the dunes and stare East, because the mountains are beautiful and the houses and trees and nothingness is amazing. I regretted not having my camera with me, and started my quick ride back to town. There is a smattering of plants surrounding the path I take, but they are very low to the ground, 6-8 inches tall.
Passing the half-way mark of the return home, I noticed nobody else was out and about, no motorcycles, trucks, vans, people, etc. But all of a sudden there was a boxer and another mutt growling and barking at my ankles. They didn’t sound like they were playing, they meant it!!
The normal procedure to scare off dogs is to throw a rock or two at them and shout like a man. That’s when I panicked, I had zero rocks with me, and there was nothing worthy of tossing at the dogs except a discarded ladies platform shoe that I knew was about 100 meters ahead. Forget the whole tossing thing, I don’t really have the agility to only hold one handle bar, while letting the other hand go all willy-nilly blocking the sun from my eyes, scratching my ear, readjusting my t-shirt, or pretending to chuck rocks at dogs. Last time I let go with one hand I almost joined the dogs on the ground, maybe because the handle bars also control the steering?
In one fell swoop I shouted “NO” and “GO” in my beefy man voice and began to pedal as fast as I could. I put all my adrenaline into flight. They immediately showed disinterest. Either they were lazy, or I’m a speed racer, or they thought I was a man. I thanked God for keeping me safe, and arrived at my destination without any other incidents.
*The only assailants I can see from far away are human in nature.
1 comment:
Here's what you do...use the reverse-attack method. You stand up on your pedals and ride towards THEM as fast as you can while shouting...they think you're crazy, get scared and run away. Voila!
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