Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Random threats of violence

Waiting for the bus the morn and a woman walks up and begins waiting near me.

Enter another woman walking what looked to be two shih tzus or some other similar small dog. They pause near us as one of the dogs investigates something in the nearby grass.

The first woman turns, looks at me, looks at the other woman, looks at the dogs and says, "You better get your dogs out of my face or I'm going to kick them."

A flat statement of intent. I'm thinking maybe she knows the dog walker and is joking around.

"What?" asked the shocked dog walker. I guess not.

"Get your dogs out of my face or I'm going to kick them."

"Why would you do something like that?"

Evil stare from first woman.

Dog walker moves along with laser-beam eyes boring into her back and the backs of her cute little dogs. While generally not a fan of cute little dogs that can't defend themselves or protect me in my time of need, one of my best friends once had shih tzu named Scottie. They get a bye.

I'm forced to wonder, what is it that could inspire someone to such thoughts and threats so, so early in the morning? Everyone's entitled to a bad day now and then, but seriously? Kick a dog? Kick a shih tzu? At least threaten to do it to a dog that has a sporting chance against you like a rottie or a boxer or...I don't know, a mastiff?

What's the strangest thing you've heard lately during your morning commute?

8 comments:

A said...

On the streetcar the other day, a drunk stumbled into me and then apologized by yelling "I like Asian women".

I love public transit.

Jenny said...

Once I was walking my beagle and some woman on the sidewalk started screaming in terror at him. I apologized and moved to the other side of the sidewalk, saying I didn't realize she was afraid of dogs and I would keep my dog away from her. She replied "well of course I'm afraid! It's just like When Animals Attack!" In her defense if you are holding pizza Baxter can take on the personality of a starved crocodile...

Liebchen said...

I don't even like small dogs and I still wouldn't kick them. That's just absurd.

Sadly, I haven't heard anything odd/entertaining recently. Maybe I need to change up my route to work.

FoggyDew said...

A - At least he had an excuse. You should have said, "So do I" and winked.

Jenny - At a beagle? At Snoopy? As for the whole pizza thing, he is a hound, living in a world of pizza smells it can't be easy to control yourself.

Liebchen - You know what they say, "If you can't tell who the sucker is in a poker game, it's you," well, if you can't tell who the crazy person is on the Metro...

Lemon Gloria said...

What an evil hag. Too bad the dog walking woman didn't kick her in the shins. That would've caught her off guard.

I walk to work either with my husband or my iPod. I hear nothing stranger than what I hear at home.

magnolia said...

sweet lord. what kind of hateful freak threatens to kick a dog? gaah.

FoggyDew said...

LG - And what you hear at home is strange enough, eh? Don't want too much weird in your life.

mags - I have no idea. If it was a cat, now that I could understand ... kidding. Yeah, I was pretty shocked at the whole exchange.

Rachel Manwill said...

I was running around a track near my house, and I'd brought my two dogs (golden retriever and a black lab mutt) with me. They were both over 10 years old and after they did a couple laps with me, they hunkered down in the grass and watched me run. Granted they were not on leashes but they were so pooped they couldn't have chased anyone if they'd wanted to. Also I live in the country so it's not like traffic is an issue either. A couple showed up at the track as I was finishing and I started to walk over to the dogs, to leash them for the walk home, and they got up to greet me. When this couple saw that they weren't leashed, they both started screaming at me that they were going to spray my dogs in the face with mace. I quickly leashed them, but had to cross this couple's path to leave. As I walked away with my very tired pups in tow, the woman pulled out a can of mace and started following me, screaming at me. I turned around, and I said, you do it and you just wait for the lawsuit, bitch, and then turned around and left.

I was furious. And if I'd had my own can of mace I probably would have sprayed her. I can't believe the audacity of some people when it comes to animals.