maniac - or legitimate rage?

The BBQ Pit
1

yeah - well this is about dogs and I’m putting it in the pit because I suspect that there may be a few fanatics who are sympathetic to the maniac, and it could get ugly.

I was walking my dog, like I often do, on the same route that I usually take. I was fine, my dog was fine - it was all good. As we are on our return route, I notice that ahead of us, someone is operating a snow blower near the road. well, there’s been a lot of snow here lately, so…no big deal. As we approach, the guy turns off his snowblower and watches us. I’m thinking, he’s just going to be friendly and say hi - yeah, I’m so naive, that I actually think that he turned off his machine to avoid possibly frightening the dog. Yeah…not so much.

So as we come abreast of this dude, he is suddenly up in my face (and the dichotomy here is, he’s an older guy who looks a lot like that kindly old guy who does the diabetes commercials…willard something? I could look it up but I’m being too lazy) and he’s yelling ‘DO YOU HAVE A PLASTIC BAG IN YOUR POCKET???’ which, taken aback and a little astonished I reply ‘uh, no?’ because I didn’t.

now don’t get me wrong - I know the reasons for carrying a plastic bag when you’re walking a dog. and the reason I don’t…well, sad to say but I know my dog’s bowel habits. I know when and where he shits. I don’t carry a plastic bag 'cuz I know my dog already shit in his own fucking yard before we even left on this walk!

so…anyway…when I answer ‘no’ (yeah, that was the wrong answer), the top of this guy’s head blows off. he starts yelling and screaming and swearing about dogs and shit and whatever, I can’t even follow his rants. I’m backing away saying, ‘it’s okay, my dog hasn’t shit anywhere on this walk’, which is true but its lost in his screaming and getting more and more up into my face. my dog, meanwhile, is getting alarmed about this very aggressive dude approaching me and he starts to dance around and bark at him. (yeah, good boy!) but the guy whips around to face my dog and says viciously, ‘yeah, go ahead and bite me you sonofabitch, i’ll fucking kill you and then call the damn cops!’ I’m like ‘dude! what are you so angry about?’ because clearly we had done nothing to incite this kind of insanity.

well, by this time, the guy was all but frothing at the mouth and I decided it was the better part of valor to just leave the situation. so, without further argument - well okay, I did say one more time ‘dude! WHAT are you so angry about???’ I collected my dog and we moved past him and continued on home with no further incident - well other than him screaming at us as we retreated.

but…I’m a little bit rattled. In all the times - and there have been many! - that my dog and I have walked this route, we have never come across this maniac before. And if you’re thinking that maybe he’s observed my dog shitting on his yard before - no - it hasn’t happened. I know, 'cuz I’m always there!

I’m nonplussed. I’m bewildered. I just do not expect to come across maniacs in my normal everyday life.

I mean…he was a maniac, right?

2

Yeah, that was fairly maniacal behavior.

3

Yes, a crazy person. Even if he’s up to his neck in dog turds, he had no right to interrogate you like that.

He’s likely going to die soon, though. So there’s that.

4

Just a heads-up, but the font here puts the hook on the letter ‘g’ on the left side, and titles are underlined, so it looks a lot like a ‘p’ at first glance. Led me to expect something completely different.

5

If it were legitimate rage, nature has a way of shutting those bowel movements down.

6

yeah…I totally don’t know what this means…

7

It’s a reference to the “legitimate rape” nonsense comment from Rep. Todd Akin a year or so ago, which Ludovic then riffed on.

8

Lily, you handled it well. Just walk away from crazy. There’s no reasoning with it.

9

I think he means that he first read your thread title as “legitimate rape”.
As far as the snowblowing maniac, he probably just ran over about a dozen piles of dog shit and flung them all over the place and is really pissed at people who don’t clean up after their dogs. You just happened to be the first dogwalker he encountered and suffered his wrath.

10

yeah…I might get this…except I walk this route on almost a daily basis and really…if you’re going to get enraged about something, get mad about the fast food trash and the beer cans which are far more common than dog shit along this road. I think this guy had other issues…

11

Yes, he sounds like a maniac. The good news, for you, is: you know where he lives. He may or may not know where you live. Of course, you are never going to use this knowledge to your advantage, but thinking of ways that you may… sleep with a smile tonight.

12

yeah…he did seem kind of like the 'warming up to have a stroke at any time now ’ type…

13

As a person who is extremely sick and tired of people letting their dogs shit in my yard and gardens, yes this guy is a maniac!

14

I probably would have answered his first question with “No, he went just as we were walking out the door” and when he started flipping out I would have just walked away. If he threatened me I would have called the police. Let them come and sort it out. I’ll put money on the police having dealt with him before.

Hell, you could call the non-emergency number now and tell them what happened because you’re worried he might still do something and you’d like an officer to go and talk to him. On the one hand, I doubt he’s a real threat, OTOH, if something does happen, you have some kind of paper trail.

In the future, if you haven’t figured it out, I wouldn’t walk past this guy’s house anymore.

But seriously, I would have called the police right away, he threatened to kill your dog and like I said, I’ll bet they’ve had run ins with him before. Someone that flys off the handle like that has probably had some other issues.

You might see if you can come up with his name and pull up his court/police records online.

15

okay, I understand what you are saying, but not walking past his house is not really an option - like I said, I’ve been walking this route for years and I’m not going to change based on one unpleasant incident. I also walk past another house on this same route in which lives an old man who has never failed to pleasantly greet me and my dog every time we go by, if he is outside. I don’t know him and he doesn’t know us, but every time we walk by, we greet one another - and I like that!

I’m not really worried about the maniac at this time, because this could be just a one off - I just happened to be walking by when he was working and cranky and feeling particularly enraged. If it should happen again - yeah then I might get a little concerned, but hopefully it won’t happen again…

To be honest, the only reason I posted this in the pit, was because I know there are people who get enraged about even the possibility that a dog might crap on their lawn. I guess I was being unfair to think that insanity might be excused just because of that! I apologize to dopers!

16

Yes.

Too bad you didn’t respond in kind. When he yelled “'DO YOU HAVE A PLASTIC BAG IN YOUR POCKET???” you should have yelled back “NO, BUT I HAVE A BROWN PAPER BAG AND PLENTY OF LIGHTER FUEL!!!” :slight_smile:

17

that would have been interesting! but I’m curious enough to wonder…what if I would have answered the question the ‘right’ way? what if I would’ve responded, ‘yes - of course I have a plastic bag! why do you ask?’ (even better if I would have actually had a plastic bag to whip out triumphantly!) who knows - he and I might have ended up being best buds! well, at least for a while, until I realized he was insane…yeah, I guess its better this way… :stuck_out_tongue:

18

Eh, he would have ranted WITH you instead of AT you, and if he hates dogs, your dog might still be threatened before the conversation is through.

If you’ve never seen him before, maybe he was just hired to snow blow, and you’ll never have to see him again. Fingers crossed.

19

I have learned the hard way that I must carry a plastic bag with me at all times when walking our Lab, even if she has pooped a short time before going on the walk. She has an extraordinarily efficient G.I. tract.

One time about a week ago I forgot, and had to borrow some Xmas wrap a neighbor had left with his trash at the curb. At least I had a festive “package” to take home with me.

20

well, I have to say that my dog is extraordinarily predictable - or just very well trained, lol! He knows that there are two places where its okay for him to crap - his own yard or, if he waits for his walk - the ditch next to the field across from our street. I won’t say he hasn’t ever violated these rules, but it’s very rare for him to be caught ‘off guard’ so to speak. and I’m absolutely certain that it has never happened any where near where the maniac accosted us! Still…if only for ammunition in the unlikely even of a future encounter - I guess it might be a good idea to stick a plastic bag in my pocket! :smiley: