Please use this thread to tell us your "People Are Sure Strange" stories, the weird things you've seen people do . . . . .
I bring this up because of a happening on Sunday as my dogs and I were circumnavigating the 17 km trail around Upper Kananaskis Lake . . . . . . a beautiful day otherwise.
We're into the third hour of our four hour trip, having come across dozens of people already enjoying the day.
For reference, my two Golden's are leashed. I shorten those leashes when we come across people, and have them stand motionless on the side of the path to let people by. Not everyone wants to meet a dog. I understand that. There's never been an incident with either one.
This family of four comes along. Husband, brother, little boy about five or six years old, and finally the mother.
As described above, I pull over to the side of the road, shorten the leashes and wait for them to pass.
The father has hold of the little boy's arm . . . the little boy is already a bit agitated as they get closer but then stumbles and falls as he's parallel with my mutts . . . . . then the show starts.
He's on the ground, then up, then down, being BOBBED up and down in front of my dogs by his LAUGHING father as though he's BAIT on the end of a fishing line, the kid SHRIEKING in panic with the most FEAR-TINGED expression on his face I've ever seen.
Obviously, this kid is severely traumatized. Seriously.
To this point, my dogs, about three or four feet away from this kid, haven't moved a muscle. Not a twitch because I'm watching them closely. They're just watching this display with bemused interest.
But the shrieking continues, the kid trying to regain his feet and backpeddle away but the father laughing and dangling his kid in front of my dogs . . . . . . finally, after a long 20 seconds of this loud catterwauling, I calmly say: "Maybe you should move along."
So, they do . . . . . and I felt sorry for the kid . . . . . perhaps he's had some incident in the past with a dog, etc . . . . but what was the father thinking torturing him like that?
You would think that would be the end of the show. No.
Next is the mother . . . . . my eyebrows go up because she's climbed off the path and onto the modest cliff, putting as much distance between my dogs and herself as physically possible, staring in horror at my dogs, ready to spring and flee in an instant.
She says . . . . ."I'm TERRIFIED. Can you move please!!??"
Meanwhile, to this point, my two Golden's STILL haven't moved a muscle. I'm serious. They might not even have blinked as far as I know.
So . . . . . I say "giddyup" and we start off down the trail and all the while I'm thinking:
"Do you folks know how many dogs are out walking this trail today!!!???"
Wow. I'd loved to have followed them just to see what kind of disaster was going to happen next.
"People Are Sure Strange."
A lovely day to walk around the lake . . . . . .
Cowperson