I was out running again this morning. Because the weather has been mostly dry cold, no fresh snow or sleet having fallen on the stuff from the other day, the footpaths are mostly clear and quite passable. Just occasionally I had to stop and walk carefully over the odd patch of compacted snow. All good!
I have no problems with dogs when I am out running. There’s the odd one that decides he wants to jump up and greet me but that’s all. Maybe the owners of aggressive dogs walk them in other places. A few weeks ago my son in law, who runs miles every day, mostly on the pavements of Ashton, ran past a man with a doberman. Maybe he startled the dog but as he ran past the dog leapt at him and bit his backside. It wasn’t a serious bite - he’s lost quite a bit of weight since he’s been running so fat every day and there’s not a lot of flesh for a dog to sink its teeth into - but it ruined a good pair of running trousers and I am told the bruising was quite impressive.
Now, according to this article, the number of cases of dog bites in the UK is going up. And it is thought that nine people have been killed by dogs this year. No-one seems to have a full explanation for these statistics. What I do know is that I cannot recall a single case of someone being killed by a dog during my childhood. Yes, there were dogs we knew to be wary of, even actively afraid of. There were dogs that roamed free during the daytime but these were not the most frightening; on the whole they just wandered around and returned home in time for feeding time when their owners returned from work.
When we are out and about with the small people we always ask permission before letting the children pet a dog, even one on a lead. And if we have our daughter’s dog with us she always asks if it’s all right for him to “make friends” with other people’s hounds. And yet in the horrible case related in the article the child who was nastily bitten by a dog had been happily petting the dog for some time before the sudden attack.
Maybe it’s something to do with the breeds of dogs which are around now which you never saw in my childhood. Maybe, as someone in the article suggests, it’s lack of socialising and training during lockdown. Maybe we need to reinstitute the dog license, in a better, stronger form, as the article dismisses the old one as useless. Whatever the solution, stressed and possible aggressive dogs are another modern problem.
I’ve been into Oldham on the bus today. On my way in there was someone with a perfectly friendly dog sitting on a seat, something I rather object to. Dogs should sit on the floor in my opinion. I do not want to sit on a seat previously occupied by a dog.
On my way home I got into conversation with an elderly lady of Irish extraction who told me all her problems with medication, doctors’ appointments, opticians appointments and so on. I found out that she lives alone and so her need to chat was understandable. Her problems with the health service are also understandable, under the present regime, although still not acceptable. Here’s an article about agency doctors being paid silly amounts of money to work a hospital shift. I have come across similar stories of nurses leaving the NHS and signing up with agencies as they can be paid more for filling the absent places on hospital teams. The country is crazy!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
Almost fifty years ago, my husband's small sister was killed by a stray dog they had recently adopted. No one knows just what happened, because the rest of the family was sleeping the siesta, and were awakened by screams.
ReplyDeleteThe dog we had when our daughter was born would try to bite her if she ever tried to touch him, but would defend her from strangers. We always thought he was simply jealous, but kept her away from him, all the same, and he never hurt her. Animals are not toys.