I know that’s not typical opening to one of my columns, but this one is different because I’m having a real hard time writing it. I’m in pain. Real physical pain. There are two holes in back left knee of my sweatpants, and I also have about a one inch scratch right on back of that same knee that’s really stinging. And guess why? A &%*@ dog bit me!

That’s right, a dog just took a little chunk out of me. And ya’ll might be wondering just how it happened, at least I hope y‘all are.

I typically walk a couple of miles each day, and I do it on roads that wind through our subdivision. It’s a pretty hilly walk, you get a nice view of some great houses, and I typically enjoy it.

Today, I was out walking and was working my way through one of our side streets. I’d just walked past this one house with an open garage, and when I did, I heard some barking. Didn’t pay much attention to it at first, but that changed when it became obvious that barking was getting closer and closer to me. I turned, and found myself staring straight into eyes of a chocolate brown lab.

This lab was a good sized dog, and he was growling like he meant business. I figured that best thing to do was to just slowly walk away, which is exactly what I tried to do. I took a couple of steps, and then felt something nip up against back of my left knee. When I turned around, dog jumped back, tensed, and I thought it was gonna try and bite me again. Note that I said try and bite me again. I’m not ashamed to admit that that I was going to kick living hell out of him had he gone for a second helping. Fortunately, he backed off and I got out of there as quickly as I could.