The last hill isn't the toughest, but it is the highest and longest. It's just gradual enough that I can get over it without down shifting all the way. The top flattens out for 3/4 of a mile before dropping back down. I was more than half way across the top when a dog came charging off his porch at me, barking the whole way. He was black with some brown spots, with longer hair. Just saying it wasn't a doberman or a rott. Bigger than a terrier. Usually a dog gets past his yard and stops, so I wasn't worried. Not this mutt. He charged out full speed. This is on a busy state road, with wide shoulders. When I saw he wasn't stopping I sped up. He got close enough to nip at my legs. I couldn't tell if he could have gone faster or not. I do think if I was slower he would have jumped at me.
All thoughts of what I should do were out of my head. I didn't have a solid bike pump to swing at him, my first idea. Then I barked back at him, that didn't work. Then the hill tilted down and he couldn't keep up. A car was slowed behind me because I was swerving onto the road, hardly by a foot though. Now he flew around me with the 'stupid bike rider' look on his face.
I wasn't scared, just mad. And realized it may have been different if I was a slower rider or had been scared. I had passed another bike rider coming up the hill so I wheeled around to warn him. I thought of the 'squirt the dog with your water bottle' trick. The dog was walking back to his house behind other houses. The other rider turned off before he got to the house.
I know something else you should do if you can't ride away, is to stop and keep the bike between you and the dog. The dog should lose interest.. A woman in my club was bitten badly when she tried this. She was riding alone. Luckily a car drove by and stopped, chased the dog off with a golf club, then took the lady to the hospital. The dog was captured and destroyed, over the loud complaints of the dog's owner. The woman now rides with a bottle of pepper spray on her handlebar, and two more behind her seat.
On the way back I stopped at the house he came from and wrote down the house number. The dog didn't chase me when I went by him again, he was still coming back to his house. There were two people sitting on the porch of the next house. The man asked if the dog got me, I said no. He said, I hope a car gets him, he's the terror of the neighborhood. I told him I'll get him and kept ridding.
When I got to my town, I stopped a policeman, related the story, and asked who to contact. He didn't know, other than to say SPCA. I asked what would happen if the dog was accidentally shot. He said I shouldn't do that, that I'd be in big trouble for shooting a dog.
Tomorrow I'll make some calls. I know the county has animal control, but nothing is listed in the phone book.
Kevin T. - VRWC My day and welcome to it
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