What’s it with me, Dogs and Stupid Cyclists?

I have always wondered why I get chased by dogs and hit by cyclists. Thankfully both didn’t happen at the same time. But in my case, both did happen on the same day!!

I was in shock after being chased by a dog for the second time (both times didn’t happen on the same day; otherwise I would have died of shock for sure!!!)

The dogs near my place, always get up from their never ending slumber the moment I am sighted anywhere in their vicinity. At first, I thought I was being paranoid but later my roomies and I realized that these dogs did stir quite a bit when I pass by them.

Incident 1:
I was walking towards home after a long day’s work. The lane was a little dark and I noticed a couple of dogs ahead. All of a sudden, one of them started barking ferociously and charged at me. My spontaneous reaction was to run. Run like mad.

I realized the lane became pitch dark. In those few seconds, my mind had already formed a picture of being bitten by that mongrel, for sure. Soon I reached the gate that usually never opens at once. Everything happened so fast that I can’t really recall exactly what happened but I think I kicked the gate open this time. I always knew I possessed super powers in me, somewhere.

Meanwhile, my neighbour tried to shoo away the dog and told me to stop running. Only one thing went through my mind at that point of time: “Are you out of your mind??”

I narrated the entire story to my roomies, and they were very amused. I got various advices on how to deal with the same in future:
“Do not run. The dog will not do anything to you”.
“Do not look at the dog” (As if I stared at it and cherished the moment!!!)

Incident 2:
Your day is not a good one especially if you miss the office bus. I traveled to a spot where I knew I could stop office buses and board the same. I successfully managed to catch the attention of one bus driver but he was not able to slow down to the side of the road. He stopped right in the middle of the road!!! Anyways, I decided to cross and board the bus.

All the vehicles slowed down as they saw me crossing, except for an over ambitious cyclist. Was I invisible to him? Or was he confident of passing by me before I crossed? As luck would have it, realisations hit both of us late. His cycle wobbled like a jelly and the cycle handle hit me hard on my hand. The cyclist and the bus driver exchanged excellent vocabulary (abuse) while I calmly got in to the bus. My day has just begun.

Later that day……

I left office early as I was having a high fever. I had bought some groceries and I was walking towards home.

I was walking fearless since it was day time and I knew no one/animal would feel like chasing me. (Don’t ask me what was the logic behind these thoughts but it’s what I thought at that point of time).

As usual, I saw a couple of dogs ahead on the other side of the road. A man passed by them. Seeing that, I thought I was safe.

As I approached in parallel with the dogs, I made sure I looked straight and walked on. But as fate would have it, I heard that familiar ferocious barking of one of them and it started charging towards me. I tried to be calm and did not run, initially. But soon enough I realized it did not intend to stop as it neared me and as usual, I ran. This time I knew it was at my heels and I screamed while I ran. Strangely, I ran in a zigzag fashion. I am still clueless as to what made me run like that!!!!!

There were no shops to run into and hence I had to seek shelter from the very next person I came across. Soon, I saw a man, a total stranger, and ran behind him, pleading, “Please do something, I am being chased by that dog!!” The man clearly guessing that I was not amused by the whole scene that I had created and so, considering my mental state, he made sure that the dog did not come anywhere near me. I thanked him profusely and headed back home not even looking up to the number of people that came on to the streets to hear a screaming girl. I reached home and I realized I was still shaking with fear.

For a change, this time, my roomies felt sorry for me. One of them was quite amazed to hear the zigzag running part of my story. According to her, animals get confused at objects moving at a zigzag fashion. I did not know that and I began to feel that probably, in my past life (if one really existed), I must have been some fast running animal (prey) always chased by other animals.

After the second incident, I have come to the conclusion that dogs indeed have some age old grudge against my clan for which they were taking revenge, on me.

Animal lovers out there, if you can solve this mystery as to why I am being chased like this, please share your thoughts on this. (Please do not suggest things like patting on the dog’s head after it runs towards me, singing a song and so on :-D)