Cave Canem

Note to the reader: if you are brave enough to visit my town, vertigoville, pop.1, stroll down to the bottom of this blog, it reads better in a chronological manner.

Caution: side effects may include nausea, dizziness, and lost of innocence.

When I was a kid I used to be scared of dogs, I remember when I was 7 years old, I was walking to school, a couple of blocks no more, and out of nowhere 2 big dogs started chasing me, I was terrified, so I run like a 7 years old kid could run.

It didn’t take the 2 dogs long before they caught up with me and surprise, surprise, instead of biting me they just smelled me and went back to where they came from.

Those 2 dogs never hurt me, but I developed a kind of fear from dogs, I cannot call my fear a phobia  but it was similar.

 I started to be careful around dogs, did whatever I could to avoid them, it didn’t matter how long a detour to my destination, I was always ready to walk the extra block to avoid a dog.

 With time I developed some kind of instinct, an antenna, I could smell dogs blocks away. During those days, I used to rely on my instinct and it worked, I managed to keep myself from being harmed by what I thought to be a ferocious animal.

When I grew up, I learnt through experience that dogs are nice, loyal and harmless companions. I learnt to love dogs and to trust them.

My fear was gone but my survival instincts stayed with me, I was able to smell the coward and the harmful; it was a simple formula, avoid these kind of people whenever you can and never let your guards around them, but my formula had a flaw, it applies only to strangers, I used to believe that the closer the person the lesser the harm he/she would cause.

I was wrong, like dogs, strangers rarely hurt us and if they do so, its random and quick; in fact we are more venerable around those who convinced us to trust them.

When close people strike its never random or quick, they take their time in orchestrating their plans, and they always shoot to kill.

Beware of dogs if you choose to do so, but the meaner dog is always closer than you think.