Fear them all, fear them not

Here goes another story about a VICIOUS dog bite: A 5 year old girl goes to work with her mother. Everyday at the same house the 5 yr old is greeted by two English bulldogs, and a Rottweiler. Everyday it is the same routine, she arrives they lick her to death and then they all sit and watch Sesame Street while the girls mother cleans the home…. but this one day, it was different, one of the Bulldogs didn't get near the girl, even tho the others dogs did, this one dog just stared at hear ears back tail straight up, not wagging. Of coarse no one noticed this on the dog, nor could the 5 year old know what it meant…. As the 5 year old got close to the dog, she got bitten on her stomach… She screamed, her mother screamed, the dog owners screamed, and the other dogs howled and barked! After a traumatic episode, the little girl never got near a dog again, her mother gave her more reasons to fear them if she tried by saying “Remember what happen to your stomach, be good or I’ll get the dog.” The little 5 year old girl was a victim, she was bitten.

At age nine, my family got a Chow Chow rescued from the pound. He was the fluffiest dog in the cages, and loved to play. As he grew, everyone began telling us stories how Chow Chows are not good with kids, how they are as bad as Pitbulls and Rottweilers, how Chow Chows claim territory and that we should return him…. Spiky, Spiky loved kids. he would cry if he could not play with them. He was the kids Dragon, and at times pillow. He would sit next to us as we ate ice cream and he would enjoy licking our faces to clean up the evidence. Spiky, was you could say, my teacher on not fearing big dogs, he allowed me to open my eyes and my heart towards kindness to all. He was an amazing watch and guard dog. He would never allow any of us kids to cross the street alone, either he would go with us or he would drag a grown up to watch us. He loved cheese, and hated bath time. As he grew older, he showed me pets never forget you. I remember once a bull dog was walking the streets, I of coarse just felt fear hit me…. And I guess Spiky felt it that he just pushed me in the other direction away from the Bulldog. Once we where a little away from it he sat down, didn't move until the bulldog passed us, then he went back to the trail we where on.

See the 5 year old girl was me, I remember that day as if it happen yesterday. My fear for dogs grew so much after that day that I honestly would cry and begged my parents to pick me up whenever I would see ANY dog: little or big. When Spiky came int our life, as cute as he was I was still scared, I feared a puppy would bite me and I would have to end up in the hospital again. But the more time i spent with Spiky the more I began to understand what had happen to me with the Bulldog.
It turned out I had some food crumbs on my shirt, and apparently a bug was on me, the dog was going after the bug and not me. For after he had bitten me he was trying to lick my hand, my mother of coarse being Hispanic threw it all out of proportion, but after I asked my sister years later what had happen she explained to me the dog was going after the bug on my shirt. Nothing happen to the dog, I was never allowed to go to that house again, my mother quit after a couple of weeks.
I sometimes wonder how my life would have been if that incident wouldn't have happen. Today I am a happy animal lover, yes I have gotten horribly scratch by my black cat that had required me to have 26 stitches and another time to look like the mummy, but I don't blame pets for defending themselves, Humans do it all the time. We accidentally leave a fully loaded gun where a toddlers can reach. Every person and pet on earth can and will make mistakes, it is up to those with half a brain (Humans) to make sure the mistakes are not made again. My mistake as a child was not to know when a dog is on ALERT, now I know tail straight up, ears pinned back means they are on alert so watch out.
I still fear things, I fear that one day I will end up in the shelter waiting to find a forever home. =)