Over the years since we adopted her, I’ve walked Peppa hundreds of times. In all that time, I’ve never really had any issues. Sure, occasionally you’ll encounter a troublesome dog or person, but generally there are no issues walking her around here.
So imagine my surprise when the one time I walk Peppa in the Bronx, I have to shift into a defensive and aggressive mode to protect her. The one day I walk her out there and there is a problem. Yay for the boogie down Bronx. /Sarcasm/
We brought her down because she was fidgeting a bit on the sofa, that usually means that she has to either pee or poop. So we came downstairs to let her relieve herself. We were in the middle of giving this very drunk man directions on how to get to the 4 train. Then this woman was coming towards us with a shopping cart, she says “excuse me” with a nasty tone and doesn’t even give us a moment to adjust. She simply keeps pushing her cart towards us and Peppa.
Given her trajectory, she was going to hit my dog. Now before this could happen, I quickly jumped in the way, put my foot down (literally) and grabbed her shopping cart to stop the forward motion. She stared at me really hard and said “I said excuse me.” To this I responded “Yes, but was I supposed to let you hit my dog with your cart? Give us a chance to move.” Now she replied, “I wasn’t going to hit her, I said excuse me.” Well, that’s not what it looked like and I’m not going to risk finding out.
My wife picked up Peppa and then I released her shopping cart. She started walking away and kept turning back at me giving me the evil eye, then to make matters worse, the drunk guy started shouting some nonsense at her and I told him to stop because I didn’t want this to escalate any further.
After Peppa did her business, I told my wife that we should go back upstairs cause she might come back with a bunch of friends or do a drive by shooting on us. She did keep staring back at us as she walked away, you never know.
Look, I am a pretty easy going guy, but one thing that I will not tolerate is anyone hurting my dog. You could smack me, and I’ll try to reason with you. If you pose a threat to my dog, there are no words, only action. I will act to protect her and then once the threat is neutralized, we can talk.
Straight up, I’ve taken the leash away from grown men because they didn’t control their dogs and they were scaring or capable of hurting Peppa. They didn’t like that, but again, am I supposed to let your dog hurt my dog because you won’t like me stepping in? Nah son, you control your dog or I’ll control it for you.
My dog is about 5 pounds. She’s tiny and defenseless in a world of giants. It is my job to protect her, and I always will.
Just a life long New Yorker sharing the journey through my lens. Please take note of a post’s date. The views I express here are subject to change and evolving as I grow and learn.