Strangers with Candy

Have a safe and happy Halloween

It's difficult to avoid falling in to the habit of referring to myself as "dad" when it comes to our dog, Maddie.  I'm not sure what doing so satisfies in me, or anyone, psychologically but I do know if feels natural to do.  Of course I never really wanted any of this being a dog person but that too came naturally.

I was walking Maddie the other day when we crossed paths with an over-exuberant dog enthusiast, and stranger.  After coming at the poor dog way too familiarly for a new person in her world, the woman asked if she could give Maddie a cookie.  I hesitantly said "yes" thinking on why it would be considered rude to deny a stranger the opportunity to feed my dog while it would be totally within reason to deny that same stranger the chance to feed my child.  Why should the trust change?

Now I don't think this woman had any harmful intent, but these are the irrational things we start to believe as we grow to love someone and feel the need to protect them.  I watched intently as the woman reached in to her bag full of random papers and objects that had no discernible association with one another.  In there along with everything else were, not surprisingly, dog treats.  Who knows why she carried dog treats in her backpack.

My worried suspicion was that she lugged them around so that when she saw a dog she could seize the opportunity to feed it one of her arsenic-laced treats and rid the world of another nuisance.  As she held the treat out to Maddie my mind flashed to images from a movie I can't remember the name of (bonus points if someone reading can help me out with this) where a man is asked to show someone his papers and as he reaches to do so he conceals a sharp object under the papers.  The man then stabs the other man in the neck.

Thankfully, Maddie did not take the treat and thus spared me from picturing any more gruesome, illogical imaginings on how the whole situation would play out.  In spite of all this accusatory, distrustful thinking about this woman I still felt bad that Maddie did not take the treat--highly unusual behavior for her.  Maddie did not take the treat when I tried to give it to her.  In fact, she did not even take the treat when we were out of sight from the woman.

My little girl knows not to take candy from strangers and I could not be a prouder papa.


What I've Learned
October 9th: The Cowboys were the first NFL team to racially integrate.
October 10th: The LA Rams were truly the first NFL team to racially integrate.
October 11th: Steven Spielberg was to direct Cape Fear while Martin Scorsese directed Schindler's List.
October 12th: Nothing that I can remember.
October 13th: You can't donate blood when you have a cold.
October 14th: A Glasgow Grin is something Scottish criminals do that leaves their victims with scars like the Joker's from The Dark Knight.
October 15th: Britain's current Queen Elizabeth is not . 22nd:a direct descendant of Queen Elizabeth I.
October 16th: The St Louis Cardinals farm system is located in Florida (explained to me by my six-year-old nephew).
Oct. 17th: The circle by our house is called Pinehurst Circle, not Chevy Chase Circle nor Connecticut Circle.
Oct. 18th: Stephen King has a new book coming out.
Oct. 19th: 72% of black children are born to unwed mothers compared to 29% of whites children.
Oct. 20th: The food with the highest ANDI score is kale.
Oct. 21th: Muamar Gaddafi was killed by Libyan rebels.
Oct. 22nd: At the age of 25 Scott Hall killed a man when he was a bouncer in 1983.

Oct. 23rd: A 2001 survey suggested that 83% of pet owners refer to themselves as "mommy" or "daddy"