[Brutton]

I'd say we encounter a loose dog a little less than 50% of the time when we walk-pretty much our neighbors suck ass. The last loose dog I encountered was on Friday morning as I was returning from the Twilight premier (don't judge) and it was the neighbor to the immediate left of us. We return their dogs all.the.time. Since it was about 3 in the morning I just took him into my garage and my husband returned him in the morning. I wanted to bring him to the pound but my husband said no. Him being with this family is better than being in a small concrete cell. I agree, but it isn't better by much. One of their other dogs (though I'm not sure if they have him anymore) Kane-AC knew by name because he was out so much. Craziness.

Anyhow, we typically keep an eagle’s eye out for loose dogs. If we see them we try to go the other way. If that doesn't work-my husband will walk both our dogs (typically we each have one) and I'll run interference. There have been times when I wasn't there...recently...the 5th as a matter of fact, Austin was riding the bike and Trooper was running alongside him. They came up on a loose dog (that we've encountered numerous times) whose owner was out on the front lawn. Austin thought she'd call the dog and/or control it-nope. Austin thought he'd speed up and get Trooper to run as fast as he could past the dog-nope. So he slowed down and prepared to do what he had to get rid of the dog. The dog ended up running off at the last minute-after Trooper chomped at him...Trooper ended up getting one of his back legs caught in the spokes of the bike. Austin was pissed, Trooper yelped (he never does) and yelled at this like 80 year old lady. Austin told her-this is the 3rd effing time this has happened-she said I KNOW. Austin said, well if you know then effing do something about it.

We've recently bought the citrus spray stuff but haven't remembered to take it with us since buying. I don't want to hurt other people's dogs...really to me it's not the dogs' fault, the responsibility falls on the owners. But I'm going to do everything I can to prevent my dog from being hurt, or hurting another dog.

Austin has kicked plenty of dogs so that there is no contact made with our dogs. I haven't, but I would if I felt I had to.

Once we were riding our bikes and Austin had Trooper running alongside him. Another family came up on their bikes-with their dog. The freaking mom LET GO OF THE LEASH the second her dog started pulling. And then stopped and just watched her dog come up to us. Both Austin and I put our bikes between Trooper and the other dog while yelling at them to get their dog...Trooper was in the background doing his best impression of a foaming Tasmanian devil...I ended up grabbing the leash of the dog, and pulling it up off the ground and walking the dog backwards to its owner. When I handed her the leash I just shrugged my shoulders and said sorry. (Later I was pissed for apologizing, but I can't help being nice sometimes).

Our neighbors around the corner from us have a one eyed dog (with a huge tumor on her belly) that is out and about whenever she feels like it. For the most part she stays in the yard...but their family member's dog (family visits often and also lives in the neighborhood) have a little JRT named Pepper. She's about to get a swift kick or a trip to the pound-I don't give a shit what my husband says. I'm so tired of seeing that damn dog.