Beware of Dogs

Last Wednesday, my son was going to a friends house after school, which meant I had plenty of time for a long overdue long run.  The weather was good so I set off along my usual route.  I'm doing the Soldier Field 10 miler so was hoping to get 7 miles in.  After 5.5 I was still feeling good, so I kept going.  I went down a street I've done plenty of times before on my long runs, just in the opposite direction.  As usual, I was running on the street facing traffic.  A third of the way down the block I saw some dogs runnign around in a front yard.  I didn't think much of it at first since so many people in our area have Invisible Fences.  As I got closer I noticed there was no owner and no Invisible Fence sign.  Two of the dog were small just yippy dogs, the other one was medium sized and started crossed the sidewalk and started running after me.  I yelled at it to go home, but that did nothing.  I kept running and then damn thing bit my in the ankle and knocked me down.  I got up as quick as I could and crossed the street and ran away cursing out the absent owners.

I hobbled home with a skinned knee and scraped hand.  Since I hightailed it out of there I didn't get a good look at which house the dogs belonged to, so spent the next couple of days driving by to see if I could see the dogs.  No luck.  I called the local police department and left a long message for their animal control officer, with as much info as I could provide but never heard back.  Needless to say, I will no longer be running along that block and will be bringing my pepper spray with me from now on.