Monday, June 07, 2010

We picked the wrong park to go to tonight

Tonight, we rode our bikes over to Liam's school to play on the playground. We spent some time on the kindergarten playground and then, as we always do, moved over to the primary playground and finally the intermediate playground for a romp before heading home.

While we were at the primary playground, a boy came riding up on his bike, with his dog running beside him. Liam was on one side of the playground and Mallory was on the other. The dog ran right up to Mallory and as she squirmed a bit, he started to bark and then nipped at her ankle.

The kid, who was maybe 9 or 10, looked at me and said, "When Max bites someone, we put him in the cage." I said, "Does he bite people a lot?" The kid said, "No, not really." Of course, by this point I was holding Mallory and she was crying. There was no mark on her ankle but I think she was pretty scared. I said, "When you have a dog that bites, you shouldn't be bringing him to the playground." The kid muttered something about the dog having slipped out the door behind him, and then he took off with the dog.

Mallory wasn't actually bitten and although I was pretty mad, I didn't feel right lambasting a kid when it was his parents who should have been getting the earful. I also didn't feel like following the kid home to ream him out. So I let it go. I just hope Mallory doesn't develop an irrational fear of dogs from this.

3 comments:

megan said...

Fear of dogs is never irrational. They can kill people. I would be so pissed if I were you! Poor little Mal, I hope she's OK.

Dawn said...

awww.....so sad!!! I am not a dog person, or an animal person at all for that matter. I feel dogs should ALWAYS be leashed in public. Should be a law. Anything can happen in an instant. Our neighbors daughter got bit badly last week, requiring major stitches. She was bit by another neighbors dog who is always tame and calm.....no reason for the bite either...we were all just sitting around, dog came right up and took hold of her arm. Poor thing is now a mess whenever the dog comes out.

Dawn said...

oh......and Mallory's birthday pics are stunning! Love love love them!!!!