Dog Attack!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
As many of you know, I work part time as a utility meter reader to help pay the bills. Dog attacks are the number one occupational hazard for meter readers, and up until yesterday, I had been fortunate enough to avoid them!
On Tuesday I was out working in Ramsey, right on the border where suburb turns into "the country." Most people had a sizeable parcel of land with their house, and most of the houses had dogs; big ones; multiple ones. For some reason this neighborhood also liked to keep their dogs outside, untied, and all the kennel doors open!
Early in the day I approached the back side of a house looking for the electric meter. I saw the back garage door slightly ajar, and before I could think twice, two large golden colored dogs came out of it and were tearing across the property towards me with the hair on the back raised, barking like mad. I froze for a split second and then started running backwards, remembering not to turn my back on an aggressive dog. The dog in the lead ran straight towards me and was lunging at me, so I put up foot to block the teeth, but that only made me flip over backwards. Somehow in the shock and adrenaline rush of it all I ended up doing a sort of backflip/summersault and landed on my feet with my pepper spray in hand, ready to fire. After my unplanned acrobatics the dogs continued to bark but kept a slight distance, so I spared them a painful spray in the face, though I really wanted to do it. I was able to back up all the way to my car, but not before two other large dogs from the neighbors came running over to join in the barking assault.
Let's just say I was a little jumpy the rest of the day whenever I heard anything that sounded like a dog coming (a LOT of things sound like a dog coming when you've just been attacked by some) and I really wanted to go home, but knew I should probably finish the day of work. I had several other encounters that day, including an owner letting her huge dobermine pincher out into the back yard with me! (She hadn't seen me enter the yard.)
That was probably my worst day on the job so far. Something else you can pray for - safety on the job!
Posted by Benjamin Washam 10:03 PM
Labels: Meter Reading, Minneapolis
I bet it looked pretty cool!