Please look up... Please!!!

From as far back as I can remember my family back home in St Vincent have always had pets, my grandmother on my mom's side of the family had lots of dogs running around her yard and I was always fascinated with puppies and kittens I mean how can you not adore them when they're all small and playful and unforgivably cute. My dad's family were a lover of both dogs and cats and there was always a cat winding its way between feet. I accepted them as part of the family and at times stroked or rubbed at their furs and ensured that they were well fed and cleansed.

I wasn't totally in love but hey they were there, and despite a close encounter with one of my gran's dogs (In my naive way of thinking and reasoning I thought it amusing to clap in front of each dog until one appropriately named Rover growled and lounged at me snapping it's teeth) when I was about 5/6 I still played with the dogs and cats around the house. This soon changed at the age of 12 when one of our neighbor's dogs bit me, from this day forth I detested dogs and this detest soon passed on to include animals and anything that was basically not human.

You may be wondering why I am reminiscing about my childhood, well I had an encounter today that reinforced even further this distaste of dogs. Firstly let's digress for a bit, the unthinkable is seemingly happening to me, I have put on weight not a huge amount but enough so that it is noticeable by myself and enough to make me want to ensure I do something about my fitness, not to lose the weight because let's face it, growing bigger boobs is a plus for a skinny person. In my quest to ensure that I am at least fit, I have agreed to accompany a work colleague and neighbor on a half hour's jog each weekday morning at 06:30. We have been doing so successfully for the last few weeks and have encountered a few dog walkers in the park on most mornings.

They seem to think that they have free rein of the park and are always walking their dogs unleashed. So, this morning I'm jogging around, when I noticed dogs in the distance, I immediately stopped and commenced walking as I have a fear of dogs since being bitten. One of the dogs upon seeing me stopped it's sniffing, looked at me with it's head cocked to one side then proceeded to run towards me growling, I thought; stand still play statue, but it continued growling then eventually barking and the stupid owner is off in the distance playing with the other dog not noticing my distress, upon hearing the persistent barking though she finally looks up and realizes what was happening and called her dog towards her, which thankfully it did and I started walking again, but then it came rushing back at me barking and growling once more, at which point my heart started pounding at an extremely fast rate I contemplated running and climbing up a tree, but the trees around were too small and leafy and looked difficult to get to any safe place, and I figured by the time I got to it the dog would be on me, I promptly started crying and trembling not sure what to do but try and stay still.

Thankfully she was able to call it off once more and had the gall to tell me don't be scared it's only a pup. Okay, if it's only a pup why in the hell is it bigger than my 2 year old niece and more importantly why is it growling and barking at me... I immediately went up to my colleague and promptly told her that I was going home and had no intentions of using that park again, better safe than sorry I'd say

I know there are a lot of animal lovers out there but right now i'm going to repeat...

I HATE DOGS.