Last Easter Sunday, I forewent church attendance because I definitely wasn't in the mood to go to church and listen to people talk about how much they loved Jesus.
Zoey and I went to the park about 4:45... the old elementary school we used to go to on the reg when we lived in midvale. It is usually quiet, and there is a fence line with other dogs on that side, and Zoey loves to race up and down the fence line and harass the dogs on the other side of the fence.
So, as we are arriving, there is a big truck that parks, and there are two white pit bulls in the back, eyeballing us, and wanting to go meet Zoey. I pick up the pace, and we walk across the small bridge over the canal, and in to the schools big yard.
I put the water container and my keys down in the middle of the big yard, and throw the ball for Zoey a couple of times and then the douche bag enters the yard, along the shaded fence line, with his 2 dogs, one on a leash, one wandering behind.
I am on the phone with a friend talking about a project, and notice that the big white pit bull is bounding towards Zoey, so I step in front of Zoey to kind of assert my protection of her to the dog (80 lbs or more). They sniff each other, and knowing how Zoey reacts to dogs that want to zoom up on her and smell her and say hi, I talk Zoey in to being nice. But she still doesn't quite know what to do, especially when 2 more dogs, a pit bull mix and a golden retriever come up and start circling around her. I can tell she is a little lost at this point, and the dog owners are just not helping, so I grab the kong ball, say "Zoey, want this?" and get her attention while we extract ourselves from the rambunctious dogs to the amount of 20 feet.
I then huck the ball about 60 yards in attempt to get Zoey away from the pit bull.
Zoey chases after the ball with precision.
The pit bull goes bounding after her.
The pit bull owner does nothing.
Zoey then asserts herself and barks at the other dog.
I walk towards the dogs, and shew off the pit bull, not in a threatening manner, just in an authoritative manner. The dog looks at me like "What? Really? ok." Then goes left. Immediately I hear from behind "Dont be an asshole. There's plenty of space here for my dog, you asshole."
As I turned around, basically astounded that this was being said to me by someone I have never spoken to, nor seen in my life, many responses came up in my mind, and got deleted because they were not strong enough. I even went past the f word at this point, and went for a much stronger response.
Mind you, at this school, I have had some idiots verbalize to me because of my pet. One man with his kids, was winding a kite, and said that as my dog ran by his family, Zoey growled at his kids. Direct quote was "If you dont keep your dog away from my kids, Im gonna call the cops." I was like: What? why would you talk to a stranger like this, with your two daughters right there, and nothing to protect your family with? Why would you immediately be an asshole? I understand to a point, but ultimately, I don't understand. I promptly told him, "I was having a great day until you said that, so thanks for ruining my day." and we left. He said nothing. Never saw him back there.
I had a girl who was walking with her boyfriend tell me she was going to kick my dog in the head. I replied very mockingly "Well, Im going to kick you in the head." Her boyfriend said something, and I started yelling ballistically "If you want to do it, lets do it. Lets do it right now. Come on, lets do it!" at the top of my lungs. Mind you this was at night, and they couldn't see me very well, but they shut the hell up, and walked a little faster across the grounds.
A german shepherd started a fight with zoey over a ball, and as Zoey was actually bending this dog to the ground, I had to break up the fight, by myself, and get the other dog away from Zoey and I. The guy said nothing to me.
Like I said, usually, no one is there. And we have a great time exercising.
Quite suprisingly, my response was "I'll go right now, I dont even care!" I threw my glasses off, and started towards him. Many thoughts went through my mind like, I should probably take my shirt off to get in this fight, and, should I just run and tackle him? What do I do now?!
He was talking flapping his mouth, I turned to reference his dog and just as I was doing so, I felt this jolt, like I had gotten hit by a basketball in the face. The douche bag had sucker punched me in the mouth. As my home boy at work says " You got caught."
My head was cocked up a little bit and I was trying to register what had actually happened, my ears rang a little, there was no pain, just confusion. I thought "Did this guy just punch me? Did a high speed basketball hit me? Isn't this supposed to hurt a lot?" As I was thinking, he was grabbing a hold of me, to try and wrestle me to the ground. I was instinctual responding by extending my arms to grapple back.
We grappled for a few seconds, and there Zoey comes to the rescue and from behind, grabs the punk ass's ankle and starts thrashing. I think to myself! Yay Zoey! Wait, don't break flesh! You could get taken from me! Douche bags friend is now on the hustle over to the incident, and Zoey stops, sensing danger. I command douche bags friend not to touch my dog.
We wrestle for probably a minute, and I start to get pretty pissed off that this is actually happening, and so I start trying harder to topple the guy, even though I had foregone all violent options, like tai kicking, ball kicking, jumping under him and springing upward, tripping him through both of his legs, uppercutting the punk ass or any thing that might have given me advantage in the ordeal. I just didnt do them.
I grabbed his jean shorts and thought to myself, In theory, I should be able to flip him if I can pick him up. Well, he was hanging on to my shoulder, so after I tried that, I couldn't get him flipped over. After a few more moments of struggle, I kind of let down my guard, and he tripped me backwards.
He fell on top of me, I had his face in a pressing position, as if I were trying to squish a melon. I had his nose directly under my palm, and could have easily broken his nose, but thought to myself, "nah, I dont want to do that." I didnt throw any punches, just thought to myself, control his hands.
After a second, I used a self defense move I know to spin on to my stomach. I continued to grab his hands and try and break one of his fingers but he kept pulling out of it. I was really really winded at this point, so I put my hands over my head and waited for him to hit me more, which he did not.
I tried to think of more things to do; if I wanted to proceed, If I wanted to catch my breath and then go round 2. I just wanted this filth off my back, so his friend eventually got him off of me. (I get mad just thinking about it, I should have never quit)
We yelled for a bit, I threatened to press charges and call the cops, he beat me to calling the cops, cause hes a douche. He said stuff like "just cause you're big" and "you're the one walking away"
His friend convinced me it would be a good idea to leave. Lucky for Douche Bag, I think. As I've relayed to the story to many, they thought it was self defense for me and my dog. I do to, though I should not have approached him the way I did.
He was obviously a man with small man syndrome. He had 2 big dogs, and a big truck. And after hearing the things he said and understanding who was accompanying him at the park, I ultimately just feel sorry for the guy. He didnt seem too smart.
He punched me in front of his wife and 2 kids.
Today, a week later after the incident, my lip is finally healing, my jaw muscle doesn't hurt as much, I am not sore from the struggle (which I bet he was so damn sore, he could hardly move the next day), and Im not obsessing about me quitting and not triumphing in the fight. I honestly didn't really know what I was doing. Im tired of people messing with me, and saying shit, to provoke me, and last week, Im glad I stood up for myself, my safety, and my dogs (families) safety.
