Last week, Flossie and I had an altercation.
We were doing our usual afternoon circuit when, as we rounded a corner, we almost collided with a man and three dogs.
Realising that two of these dogs were off-lead and mindful of our incident the other week when we were set-upon by two wayward dogs, we swiftly crossed the road and continued on our way.
I thought that would be the end of it, but it wasn’t.
The two loose dogs sprinted across the road towards us, barking aggressively at Flossie.
Flossie barked back but seemed to give up easily. Once again, there were two of them and one of her.
The man did nothing.
I was not happy.
We started to walk away from the wall of noise, hoping that the dogs would return to the man, which they seemed to, eventually.
I called out, slightly pompously, that he should have all three dogs on a lead.
As I did so, one of the dogs chased after us again, barking incessantly at Flossie.
By this point, I was having déjà vu from when Flossie and I were attacked, although this time there was at least an owner I could remonstrate with.
I’m afraid a swear word left my mouth. I was so frustrated that he was allowing two of his three dogs to run amok alongside a road and he was doing absolutely nothing to help the situation. There was certainly no apology.
In fact, he shouted at me to “Calm down.”
That was not helpful.
I glared at him, muttering something about how irresponsible he was.
What completed my disgruntled demeanour was that my eyes were watering. It was a really windy day.
So, as I flounced off (once he had finally got the dogs under control), a single tear rolled down my cheek.
I hope he didn’t see it.
As published in the Bath Chronicle, 27 November 2025
Suzy Pope is a certified copywriter and newspaper columnist specialising in pets, business and lifestyle. If you would like help with a writing project, please get in touch.