Dogs!

The kids and I had a scary experience on Saturday. I had taken them to an Easter Egg hunt at Zebulon Elementary, which had be canceled and rescheduled, and then decided to stop at the pond in our subdivision to let them play and throw rocks in the water. I remember hearing dogs barking in the background, which I thought was kind of weird since nobody around us owns dogs. A few minutes later, we saw two dogs coming towards us - no collars and definitely acting like wild or stray dogs. They started barking at us, so I thought it wise for us to immediately head back to the car. The dogs got in between us and the car and began acting aggressive. I didn't know what to do! There was NOBODY around - even if I had screamed, I don't think anybody would have heard me. I told Hayden to say a prayer and I began praying as I looked around for a stick or something - anything! I started walking a different way and picked up a stick. They ran around and blocked us from going that way too. I screamed at them (this is when Hayden got scared - he hadn't ever heard my voice sound like that before). But, the screaming only made them madder. I had always heard that you are suppose to yell at a dog and act "in charge". Well, this didn't work. Then, I threw the stick at them and this really set them off, baring their teeth, putting their ears down, and lunging forward at us. I was almost crying by this point and totally out of ideas. I hadn't noticed that we were in the street because I was too involved in being terrified. But, Hayden noticed that we were, and by instinct, I guess, ran across the road. The more aggressive of the dogs took off after Hayden and I remember looking at Hayden and thinking, "he's going to get bitten in the leg". Just at that moment, however, a car came down the road and started honking their horn, as they saw what was happening. Then, they let us get in their car and they took us to our car. We hopped in, locked the doors (which was unnecessary), and called 911. We waited for an officer to come, told him what had happened, and showed him the dogs (they were still hanging around). He then called animal control. The rest is kind of a long and uninteresting story except to say that both of the dogs have been caught and taken by animal control - my heroes. I relive that in my mind and still get shivers thinking "what if ...". It's a mother's worst nightmare come true. At least, one of my worst nightmares. I've never been very fond of dogs and this only confirms my probably irrational fears. But, all is well that ends well. We are safe.