Encounters of a Jogger in the Park 1

When I’m out jogging in the neighbouring park I come across all sorts and sizes of people and... dogs. Some are regulars and some I only see from time to time and yet others I see once and I never see them again. And of course over a period of time some regulars do not show up again and I can’t help wondering why. Have they moved house, changed their daily routine, or simply passed on to that great park in the sky? The folk I see there are of course just a tiny slice of the number who visit the park every day, since my jogging time window is narrow and normally around the same time in my lunch hour.

There’s the very elderly couple who used to come regularly, the woman using a walking-stick and looking much frailer than the man. Probably because of this I often used to see the old man on his own. He was a small thin and wispy figure and he had a prim little shuffle of a walk, always looking ahead, never to the side, and never gave me a glance as I ran past him. I speak of them in the past tense because it’s now been some time since I last saw either of them and I rather fear the worst for the old woman who looked very infirm and was uncertain on her legs. Though the old codger might re-appear some time, I fear it will never again be with his partner. But we shall see.

There used to be a short bald chubby chap with one of the biggest dogs I have ever seen. I think he said it was an American Bulldog, and it was a massive beast, with a jaw that looked like it could chew its way through steel bars. Just the sight of it, with its gaping mouth, bristling teeth and tongue hanging down in panting mode, scared the shit out of me, and I ended up christening its owner the “Scary Dog Man”. I think he rather liked his new nickname because he once told me he could make me run faster by setting the dog after me. I couldn’t really disagree with that, though I rather suspect the brute – that’s the dog not its owner – would easily catch up with me and have me for lunch. Well that was the Scary Dog Man whom I haven’t seen for about a year now and hopefully won’t see again, not because of him but because of the monster pet that accompanied him and gave me the shivers.

Talking of dogs in the park, I had a very unpleasant clash with one such beast a couple of years back. It seems its owner threw a stick for it to retrieve and it set off after it in hot pursuit. Unfortunately the stick had been hurled in my general direction and as I came round a curve I saw this black missile hurtling towards me at breakneck speed. It was all so quick that I had no time to take evasive action and it seems the dog wasn’t too bothered either. The inevitable happened of course. We ran into each other head on and the shock of the impact sent me reeling to the ground whilst it appeared to have little effect on the creature which ran on to retrieve the stick. As I lay on my back on the turf, trying to get my breath back and recover from the impact and the shock, its owner walked up to me and asked, in a rather offhand manner: “Are you alright, mate?” He made no attempt to help me up or anything and when I weakly replied something to the effect that I would be alright, he just wandered off again. He obviously cared not a jot and was quite happy to leave me lying there. It was some minutes later that I recovered sufficiently to get back up on my feet.

This puts me in mind of another incident with a big pooch. Not as big as the Scary Man’s Dog, but big enough. I had gone for my jog at a much later time than usual, which meant that a different crowd was frequenting the park, a much younger one which earlier in the day would have been at school or college. Anyway, there was a group of young lads with a couple of large dogs in their midst. As I ran along a stretch of the park near to the group, one of the dogs pulled away from it and started bounding in my direction. This made me a little nervous but I decided to keep my cool and keep running. The next moment I heard the rapid patter of paws behind me and before I knew what was happening the dog overtook me and swerved round to stop right in front of me. How I managed to avoid running into the animal, I don’t know, it must have been some sort of reflex action, but manage it I did and, although I came close to falling over it, I stopped just short of the creature. For its part, it did not seem to flinch in the least, as it stood its ground, its tongue lolling outside its jaw. The next moment, its teenage owner turned towards us and called the dog over, but I got no word of apology from him or anything approaching it (that’s kids for you!) and I resumed my run, muttering my discontent under my breath. I had come off relatively lightly from this encounter, unlike the one with the stick-retrieving dog.

Well, dear reader, if you have stuck with me so far, I will spare you any more... for the moment..., as my encounters and experiences during my jogging in the park are many and manifold... oh yes, there are many more... and I will come back to this subject in another post or posts and further delight you with my reminiscences. Hence the ‘1’ in the title! You can’t wait for the sequel, can you?