I saw a man yesterday running with his dog. He wasn’t very fast, and his little black dog was stopping at various trees and shrubs to investigate. And I watched as a loose dog came trotting out of nowhere from across the street and started to pick a fight with the man’s little black dog.
I don’t recall which dog made the first move, but in a moment they were snarling ferociously and at each other. The man tried in vain to say between them, pulling on his little dog’s leash, trying to yank him out of the action. And then the little dog slipped out of his collar and both dogs were loose.
The second dog was bigger and had the advantage, but the first one was wiggly and turned on a dime. The big dog tried to bite the little one on the back, but the little one tucked and turned and ran. He ran out into the street where the traffic had slowed because of the commotion and now came to a halt as the two dogs went at it right on the dotted line.
The man saw that the cars had stopped and ran into the street, trying to get between the fighting dogs and whip the bigger one with his leash. And then the little black dog, deciding that there was no profit in all this, made an escape, dashing for the sidewalk, leaving the big dog in the middle of the road staring at the man.
The big dog began to snarl. The man stepped toward the dog and yelled, “Go,” pointing back to the house across the street.
“GO!” he yelled even louder pointing again back to the house.
The big dog looked at the man. The snarl was gone from its face.
“GOOO!” the man yelled again, this time at the top of his lungs, sounding like some wild man of the mountains.
The big dog turned and walked away.
“Thank you,” the man said to a woman in an SUV who was at the front of the line of cars stopped in the street.
He scooped up his little black dog and walked off in the direction the two of them had been running, whispering something in the little black dog’s ear.