neighbor-dogs.

A couple weeks ago, I was walking my pitbull around the neighborhood. We were coming up on the last turn before getting back to our house when we encountered a neighbor-lady and her neighbor-dog walking in the opposite direction. I smiled and waved while holding the leash close to keep Remix walking nicely next to me. The leash, by the way, is always wrapped four or five times around my hand. This serves two purposes: 1.) it's easier to control a muscle beast of dog with a short leash, and 2.) to let her know that I am in control of her, even though she is a muscle beast of dog.

Remix looked at them eagerly, like brand new friends. The neighbor-dog plodded along with its head down, not interested in new friends.

"Watch out around the corner, that pitbull is loose again," the neighbor-lady said.

I had no idea what they were talking about. I've seen two dogs loose in the neighborhood before. One was a St. Bernard, which could in no way be mistaken for a pitbull. It was gambolling joyfully about. The other was some kind of pointer with white, flowing hair. It was named Domingo. I know, because its leash was stuck between the boards of my porch, and I had to consult the tag to call the owners. Now that I think about it, I guess it wasn't loose in the neighborhood at all.

I felt sort of embarrassed about having my pitbull right there, even though it was clearly contained. Anyhow, we continued on our walk and did not meet the loose pitbull.

Last night, Josh and I were walking our pitbull together. We heard a shout and looked up to see a brown mass barrelling toward us, a leash trailing behind it. It looked like a pitbull that was loose, again. His owner-lady came after, way behind, still yelling.

I tightened my hold on the leash and Remix stood prepared, looking interested with her hackles already raised. As he got closer, I realized he was snarling. The brown dog went straight for her, bit her on the head, and did not let go. Remix sort of cowered. Josh grabbed the brown dog by the body and then by the collar, pulling him off. It was over in seconds.

I have seen a scary dogfight. This was not too scary. I'm not even sure that he was trying to fight or if this was his way to meet-and-greet. Establish dominance first? I dunno, I'm not a dog.

"Keep hold of him!" yelled the still-running neighbor-lady. Yeah, because we were just going to let this one go. I got a closer look at the brown dog and decided that he was made of many kinds of dogs, possibly some pitbull. I held Remix several feet away, where she watched with interest, her tail wagging. Her head was slobbery, but she seemed completely unfazed. Thick skull.

"Oh, I am so so sorry. I just let him go, I mean, I just finished walking him," neighbor-lady explained as she finally got close enough to take her dog from Josh. We shrugged and continued on as she yelled at her dog all the way up the driveway.

Later, I found some dried blood and a tiny puncture wound on Remix's head. We praised her with much ham for being submissive and not killing that other dog on the spot, which we were confident she could do. And while it turned out okay for us, because we have a muscle beast, a little dog would not have fared so well, not to mention any of the other little things that might be walking in the neighborhood.