Dogs and Children

It’s almost as if, the moment their youngest child goes into full-time education, mothers feel this primal need to replace their infant children with something else to nurture.

It’s like Crufts around the local schools sometimes.

Big dogs, small puppies, pedigree specimens and mongrel mutts, some are attached to the railings awaiting their owner’s return, whilst others are kept on a tight leash outside the school gates.

But, strangely, for some of them, that nurturing instinct does not extend to picking up their animal’s excrement and the journey to school for many is a poo dodging trial. My own feeling is that, rather than a £50 fine, if they are caught walking away, the penalty should be for the owner to have their own nose rubbed in the resulting mess.

One morning, I watched as a particularly large breed cocked his leg to pee against a wall – just as a small child ran past, spattering the lad in urine. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, just a case of wrong place, wrong time but an altercation ensued when the owner seemed unwilling to apologise for the unpleasant situation endured by the little one.

And then, this afternoon, I saw far worse. The rain was falling down and a particularly over-excited puppy was being held on his lead by a chatting mother. Whilst she was not paying enough attention, the puppy jumped up at a toddler, who was holding his mother’s hand as he walked past, bashing his nose against the child’s cheek and knocking him over.

I didn’t hear what the child’s mother said but it must have been something along the lines of ‘control your animal’ which was not really excessive in the circumstances.

The owner of the puppy was a very elegant lady, who is always beautifully dressed, and I turned away expecting to hear an apology, but no. What came forth from that pretty mouth was a shocking stream of racist invective in front of all the children waiting to cross the road.

The toddler, his mother and her other primary school child hurried away, whilst the offending animal and his owner stomped away into the school where he proceeded to jump up at everyone as they left.

Some time later, they walked past me and she proceeded to apologise for the altercation. I was too busy about my own business to really pay much attention but I wish I had been brave enough to tell her she was apologising to the wrong person. However, I knew that it would be a waste of breath because her apology had continued with a ‘…but I can’t stand those sort of people’.

Whether she meant the colour of the other mother’s skin, her request for suitable control over an animal or what, I am not totally sure.

Whatever, I will not be looking at that ‘lady’ with the same eyes ever again.