Dog Days of Winter

I am a great lover or dogs. For as long as I can remember there’s been a dog in my life. Most recently, the 10+ years we had with our beloved golden, Jackson, are full of fond memories. He was the sweetest, gentlest, most affectionate four-legged friend and he never snapped at our children. When they’d grab clumps of fur from him as toddlers, he’d just look at us pleadingly with his big brown eyes and gently get up and “harrummpphhhh” himself down in another corner of the room.

This sweet remembrance of our dog is what makes it difficult for me to understand the dogs in this neighborhood. Because there are many dogs here who could benefit from a loving home instead of being kept outside no matter the temperature or time of day. We’d read that Hungarians have quite a love affair with their dogs and treat them more like humans than pets. Huh. Because you’d think people who don’t keep their dogs indoors in the dead of winter don’t care much for the dog’s wellbeing. Worse, being kept outdoors seems to affect the dogs’ temperament. When you walk through our streets here you don’t hear gentle barking, but aggressive ‘I-want-to-eat-you-for-dinner’ barking. It’s especially unsettling to walk to school as these dogs race up and down the fence lines, snapping their jaws and barking nonstop at my children. My kids are equally at a loss because their experiences with dogs has been colored by the sweet, gentle dog they grew up with. My son even said to me once, “Mommy, all dogs are nice like Jackson.” I had to correct him as I envisioned one of these dogs jumping over a fence and chasing us down the street. Two things happened last week that made us want to leave nasty notes in mailboxes for these dog owners:
1.
I was walking home from school alone, and (thankfully) the kids had come home earlier with Travis. As I was walking by one of the offending dog owner's home, a black dog darted out and into the street, barking wildly at me as I walked up the hill. We’d seen this dog the week before, also unleashed and running freely. He ran out in front of my daughter and scared her to death one morning – me too – before we quickly got away. This time I wasn’t so lucky… but lucky enough. He continued to bark at me as I walked slowly, slowly, knowing there was no where else for me to go. If I ran he’d follow, and if I turned back the other direction, he’d follow. He started circling me as I continued to walk slowly up the hill, all this time trying to keep calm and not smile at him (would he think I was baring my teeth at him?). My heart started racing as I realized, ‘this dog is going to attack me.’ I didn’t want to yell for help because a) it might make matters worse if he sensed my panic, and b) no one would understand what I was yelling about. What to do? I carefully reached into my coat pocket for my phone while the dog started barking more fiercely and tightened his circle around me. I was terrified. I’ve never been afraid of dogs nor understood people who have a fear of dogs… until now. I fumbled to find our home number in my address book and when Travis answered I panicked and said, “If I’m not home in two minutes it’s because I’ve been bitten/attacked/killed by this friggin’ dog!” He heard the fear in my voice and could hear the barking from our house… and then suddenly, THANK GOD, a car came down the road headed in my direction. I have no idea if the driver had seen or heard what was happening, or was simply driving home from work, but the relief I felt was immense. She pulled up near the dog, rolled down her window and began shouting at it. “Thank-you-thank-you-thank-you-thank-you” I said under my breath, then shouted a big Hungarian “Kösönöm!!!” to her and quickly walked the remaining 50 meters home, my heart nearly jumping out of my chest the entire way.
2.
Remember my comment, and Travis’ post, about dogs who are left outside all hours of the night? A few nights ago we’d had an especially rough evening with our son, who has been experiencing “kid fears” at bedtime. These fears either prevent him from falling asleep (“I see that scary lady from ‘Tangled’ in my eyes, Mommy! She’s in my eyes!”) or wake him up at odd hours of the night, making it difficult to fall back asleep. This was one such night. After finally settling him to sleep and getting ourselves into bed, the dog who lives two houses from us started barking. And barking. And barking. This is not the first time this has happened, not by a long stretch, but on a good night he’ll bark for a few minutes and then stop. Then there are nights like this one. He kept going and wouldn’t stop. Of course this causes a bajillion other dogs in the neighborhood to join in, barking back and forth and creating quite a cacophony. I’m not sure which is worse: dogs that won’t shut up or fireworks. Because both seem to stem from a similar place – a lack of respect for your neighbors who don’t wish to be up at all hours of the night. We wonder how we can be the only people in the neighborhood bothered by this incessant barking? Wouldn’t you think others would complain? I find it odd that such a cherished Hungarian family member would be left out in the cold all day and night to bark at will. Needless to say, the barking continued throughout the night making it quite difficult to get a good night's sleep. I can tell you it's much more exhausting to have continuous sleep disruptions than only one that's due to a bad dream. Nights with endless barking make us feel like we have a newborn baby again, waking every few hours and finding solid sleep hard to come by.

If Travis has his way, notes will be in the mailboxes by the end of this week. Minor detail that he can’t write/speak/read Hungarian…