Crabby Old Men (Part Deux)

Well, following that threat my mom and I received at the expense of a crabby old man yesterday as we walked our two dogs, to my surprise (kind of), my mom went back over to talk with him.

When she came back home, she told me all about it, yet, I kept hearing bits and pieces of new information as the day and night wore on.

First off, she was telling me how he's actually a nice man (I don't believe this) and a lover of animals (I'm not sure about this either).

But, right when she stopped by, he was ranting about how if someone uses their dog to tease his dog, then he's going to use his dog to tease their dog. He continued to go off about how he's been watching me for 6 months and knows that I was teasing the dog next door and enjoying it. I'm wearing a shirt today that I dedicate to him and people like him. It's a picture of Stewie from the show "The Family Guy," where he says, "I'd love to stay and chat but you're a total idiot."

I guess my mom finally got him to shut his trap for a minute, so she could have the floor, and told him how our two dogs don't care for the loud dog next door to his and walk right by the fence every day without even looking in the dog's direction. But, that the reason I was smiling was because our dog Tara makes these whimpering noises when she sees the little white dog at his residence, because it probably reminds her of our old dog Rocky who we just had to put to sleep not long ago. Supposedly, this shut him up for a minute.

To that, he said that since our dogs were so close to his gate and smelling his dog, that they were doing the same thing with the loud dog next door. In other words, he never saw it happen. It was just an assumption.

He then told her how he was worried about my safety and that even though the dog next door was well trained (ha) and not mean in any way, that he could bust through the fence and that I'd be in trouble. If something happened, he'd feel helpless.

He also mentioned how he didn't care if I or we took our dogs by his gate, so long as I or we didn't walk them close to the fence next door. He also said that it was a public walkway, so there was nothing he could do about it.

I later told my dad the story and he had a run-in with this guy too, I guess. About a year ago, my dad was walking the two dogs down the same pathway that I had yesterday and bumped into this crabby old man and said that the old man gave him a dirty look and mumbled something to him that he couldn't understand, but that didn't sound pleasant.

Okay, so let me get this straight. He's a lover of animals. He's fine with us walking our dogs out in the horsetrail, because there's nothing he can do about it. He was merely concerned about my safety. Yet, he showed this concern through threatening me. He also showed his love for animals by threatening to bring his dog over to tease mine. In his mind, by our dogs walking by that loud obnoxious one, we're teasing that dog and someday, it'll break out and cause problems for myself and/or the dogs. So, through that philosophy, he's truly his benevolent nature toward dogs by threatening to tease and rile up my dogs by bringing his over, with the chance that they'd break out and cause problems for either he and/or his dog. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It's a public walkway, where people can ride horses, walk their dogs, go for jogs, and he recognizes that (perhaps reluctantly), yet has the nerve to threaten some who make proper use of this public walkway. Again, that makes a lot of sense.

Anyone who bumps into this one in particular or any other crabby old man, I suggest you go by the Stewie philosophy written above, "I'd love to stay and chat but you're a total idiot" and keep on walking.