You ladies are wonderful. It makes such a big difference knowing you care and sympathize. Non-cyclists/bikers just don't get it, and it frustrates me. All that goes to say that I appreciate your input and concern, and to know you want to be updated encourages my bicycling life. Xeney, since you brought up the other post I will explain what happened yesterday. Forgive me if you don't like how detailed I get, but I am going to use this as documentation should the future need arise...

I was going up the hill by their house and heard the dog barking. I unclipped my right foot, and prepared to get off the bike in case the dog was loose. I truly felt the dog would be tied up if it was outside. NOPE! Here the thing comes, bearing down on me, and I promply stop the bike and unclip the left foot to dismount (most ungracefully, I might add... How come there is no mention of how to unclip the other foot once you are stopped? It is the hardest part!!).

I put the bike between me and the dog, and try to figure out what to do next. This brings me to the next sidenote: if you are supposed to deal with dogs by dismounting, what do you do once you are on foot? Walk away carefully? Ignore the dog until it stops barking? Stand there like a dope?

In my case the dog kept barking up a storm and I stood there like a dope. Tried to walk away, only the thing would flip out and come after me. Several times it tried to get around the bike, but would stop when I moved the bike to keep it between us. I must have stood there for several minutes, until finally the next door neighbor (mother-in-law of owner's dog, plus her dog was Dog #2 of accident) came out. Shoo, she said. Dog ignored her totally. She said she was sorry the accident had happened, I said I was sorry about it too, that now I was having to deal with being scared of dogs. Blah, blah, blah. She saw how the dog flipped out every time I tried to move away. I just couldn't believe this was happening. She gave me permission to squirt the dog with my water bottle. Which I did. It seemed to work that time. Feel free to ask me about it via PM. She said if the dog came after me again I could squirt it. And that I could go. She said I was safe to go now. How is that for a comment???????

You know, I am a pretty optimistic person. Tranquil. Get along with everyone. That type a gal. So I tend to think the best of people. I find myself shocked: that they don't see how lucky they are that I'm not a "sue you for all you're worth girl"; or that they don't have their dog tied up given they admitted in front of a cop that cyclists go up and down their road all the time. Do they not realize it is going to happen again??? I'm not out for revenge or anything. But this is crazy.

Anyway, no more griping. Long story short, I fell yesterday, but it was my own stupidity and the left clipless pedal at fault, not the dogs; they were several miles away by that time. I am hoping to talk a friend into biking that route tomorrow, so that if the dog comes out again I can have an eye witness (outside of their household). Dog does it again tomorrow and I will call animal control. Yep. Now, about the other three dogs further down the road.......