Attack Mode...

You've heard of "When Bears Attack", but have you ever heard of "When Maes Attack"? 

It happened yesterday morning on our walk.  For those of you who don't know, I get up with Mae sometimes and we walk around our subdivision about 4:00am.  We were a little bit later then normal on our walk and it was closer to 5:00 yesterday.  (I never get scared in my neighborhood on our predawn walks because we have great street lights and there are dozens of people out.)

I keep a sharp eye out of people coming up behind or in front of us.  I step off the sidewalk into the grass when I see them coming because Mae goes nuts.  She jumps and lunges and growls and snaps at them when they go by.  I always apologize as folks speed passed us.  It's very embarrassing that I can't control an 18 pound dog.

Yesterday we were stopped while Mae sniffed around.  I had looked over my shoulder earlier and didn't see anything.  Nobody was in front of us.  I thought all was well.  I was wrong.

A guy came running up behind us in a dark jacket and Mae went crazy.  Before I could get the slack out of the leash she was on him.  She jumped at him and bit his hand.  He stopped short and raised his hands but it was too late.  I yanked her down and apologized all over myself.  You could tell the guy was ticked.  He said no problem and just kept on running.  I don't think she broke the skin, but still!  I guess I now know she's bite when defending one of us.  I think she only bit because he scared us both.

Of course as the guy runs off Mae continued to bark and pull on the leash like a wild woman.  She got the dog in the backyard behind us going and that got another dog to barking.  It was great.  I'm sure the whole neighborhood was happy with Angela and Mae.

Tommy has banished her from our walks.  I'll try it again, but will keep a tighter grasp on the leash.  I already have her in a harness because I was afraid something like this would happen and the collar attachment alone would come off her neck.  She's stuffed in the harness like a little sausage, because I don't want it coming off.

So, it was a Discovery Channel Monday around here!

And to appease my MIL, I will start carrying my container of pepper spray again.  I used to carry it when I was alone, but probably ought to carry it again now in case a bad guy comes up behind us and disables Cujo.