Unpopular opinions (non road related)

[Max Rockatansky]

I thought you hated dogs?

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=26301.msg2496068#msg2496068

Locally here in Fresno the lack of side walks or bike lanes for such a large city is surprisingly high.  Generally I run before sunrise and cycle when the sun is starting to come up.  My primary concern is getting hit by a car (which has happened twice) so I tend to run roads that have little traffic (even if they are in bad neighborhoods) or I can get to something like the dirt outcrop of some farmers land.  I try to always face traffic when I run which is counterintuitive to traditional traffic control but it has a huge advantage in that I can see what is coming and have time to get out of the way.  Nobody seems to give a crap if I jaywalk while running but they really do start caring fast if I'm on a bike.  Either way, I'm far more concerned about a vehicle over getting within six feet of someone not wearing a mask.  I would rank dogs as my number two concern, they are chase animals by nature.

How does that infer I "hate" dogs?  I just don't like being bitten by dogs I don't know because their owners have no control over them.  If anything what I do dislike is shitty animal owners.  Presently I own four dogs and I've had eleven through my lifetime. 

To clarify further, one of the neighbor's dogs got loose and did bite me pretty hard last year.  It got out again second time soon after which necessitated me calling Fresno PD since it was being aggressive.  I went into more detail about all that elsewhere recently.

[Roadgeekteen]

I've never been a big dog person, though I don't mind well-behaved dogs. I prefer cats as dogs can be quiet aggressive even if you are just walking by them, plus I don't love the way they interact with people. I have autism so I deal with sensory issues.

[Max Rockatansky]

All four of my dogs have very different personalities.  Falcon is the one is the one who is most stereotypical "dog."  He loves to be outside, play, run around and swim.  Rousey is a wuss and likes to hide in her crate all day.  Monster is just super old and lays around all day.  Sonny is the one I got from my mother-in-law.  He's pretty gentle, plays and was until recently somewhat feral given he was living at a trailer park.

I've always liked cats and wouldn't mind having one when one of the dogs kicks the bucket.  My wife isn't really a fan though and I've never been able to have come around to them.

[kphoger]

I just don't like being bitten by dogs I don't know because their owners have no control over them.  If anything what I do dislike is shitty animal owners ... To clarify further, one of the neighbor's dogs got loose and did bite me pretty hard last year.  It got out again second time soon after which necessitated me calling Fresno PD since it was being aggressive.

Our next-door neighbors have a few dogs, and one of them is an energetic pit bull.  It's full-grown, but it's still basically a puppy.  Our neighborhood has relatively small houses with small yards, and their backyard has privacy fences on all three sides.  They don't take their dogs for walks.  And they don't train them either.  What this means is that that pit bull's only view of the outside world beyond the back yard is through gaps and holes in the fences and gates, and it has no self-control either.  (The other two dogs just follow for fun.)

When I mow the lawn, O... M... G!  The dog goes absolutely berserk.  Once last year (or maybe this year? I don't remember when it all started), it broke through a board in our fence and decided that it was fun to "play" with the lawn mower by attacking the wheels and chewing on the cables.  Later, after repairs, it broke through another board and attacked the mower.  So the neighbors screwed sheets of plywood to several parts of the fence.  Then it dug a hole under the fence and attacked the mower.  So they screwed more sheets of plywood all along the length of the fence.  Then it jumped over the fence—a six-foot privacy fence and attacked the mower.  So they started tying the dog up in the backyard while at home and locking it in the garage while away.  At some point, unrelated to my mowing the lawn, it apparently broke through the garage window, because I noticed it was boarded up.  Then one day recently, it broke through the board in the window and attacked the mower.  My patience being exceeded by that point, I kicked the dog.  More than once.  It ran to another yard, then decided to see if "playing" with the mower was still an option, so I whacked it with the downspout extension I'd removed before mowing.  After that, it didn't come within two houses of me while I was mowing until the owner came home to collect it.

In the process, though, I pulled a muscle in my butt, with excruciating pain that took about fifteen minutes to subside.  I also injured my foot somehow, and the pain hasn't gone away;  this was more than a month ago, and I still don't have full range of motion before it hurts too much.