Dog chase

In between rain showers I rode my bicycle several times.  In the afternoon as I rode on the road I was chased by two small dogs, although it was mainly one dog as the other got a late start and couldn't quite catch me.  The one dog that ran along side and tried to get me was was a barky little dog full of teeth and fury.  Usually when one get beyond the dog's territorial zone they quit chasing.  This dog kept chasing me.  I think it followed me more than a half mile before giving up.  Then a half mile later a car raced by me and pulled into the next intersection.  Two young guys came out and came at me.

The one guy was mad because I "let" the dog chase me.  What?!  I "let" the dog chase me???!!!

He told me that when the dog chased me and tried to attack me I should have stopped and not let the dog chase me.  I was dumbstruck.  This guy should have been apologizing to me for his dog chasing me and trying to bite me.  I told him I wasn't stopping and getting bitten by his dogs.

"They are just little dogs and you are bigger than them!  Do you know how far we had to go to get our dogs back?!"

I understand differences of opinion and usually just let it go.  But I don't suffer fools gladly.  Both these guys were idiots.

I told them, little or not, these dogs were trying to bite me and I wasn't about to get bitten.

Then he told me then I should have turned around and headed back.

What?!!     What an idiot!

I told him that dogs are territorial.  Turning around would just further upset the dog and I wasn't getting bitten.  The best thing to do was leave their territory.  The dog would quit chasing and go back home.

He whined some more at having to retrieve his dogs.   I told him that he needed to control his dogs so they wouldn't chase me.  He then said, "Sometimes shit happens."

"And it my fault you can't control your dogs?!  No, it's not my fault.  You need to control your dogs!"

Both these guys were millennials.  The second guy looked as stupid as he sounded.  As they walked back to their car the second guy made some stupid remark about this being my fault and I was an idiot.

Really?!   I said something back.   Something along the lines of 'you need to control your dogs, dude.'  I was getting madder by the minute and trying to not really go off on them and just only reply to their idiot remarks and not 'up the ante' by telling them explicitly how stupid they were and using profanity.  I had to bite my tongue.

This is a first.  In all my years I have never had someone upset with me when their dog chased and tried to bite me.  Usually they are apologetic or else they tried to pretend it wasn't happening.  I've never been told that I shouldn't have 'let' their dogs chase me.

Well, these guys got a little piece of my mind.  I'm still upset at these two fools.  Then I remind myself it could have gone differently.  A few months ago a friend was jogging on the road a few miles away.  A guy in a pickup driving by tried to run him over or off the road.  Paul said he was mad and flipped the guy off as he drove off.  The guy came back and they exchanged words and then he tried to run Paul over again.  The third time he came around Paul said he took off across the ditch and through a famer's field.  Another guy witnessed this and followed the guy in the pickup.  Eventually they drove past my place and a third of a mile north, on the bend, the first pickup lost control and went off the road, through a neighbor's mailbox, into a number of small trees down in the ditch and field, and totaled his pickup.  Law enforcement carried him out of the ditch on a stretcher and to the hospital and apparently jailed once he recuperated and was released from the hospital.

There are some doozies out here!