Dog Blog

Winter left in a rush. Summer is here in Nome, even though it is not June 21st.  With the nice weather, I feel inclined to get out with the constant daylight.  A few days ago I went on my 3rd bike ride since the ITI. It felt good.  It was the first on dirt and sure enough I had my first dog encounter.  I have had so many, dating as far back as childhood when I used to deliver papers, that this season I thought I might categorize & tally my dog encounters with point system.  

Without further ado or judgment to dog owners here are my tentative categories (CAT 1 - 6). Kind of appropriate for bike dog categories, right? For CAT racing and also for dog/cat.. ha.  

Cat 1: dog chases you but sort of a friendly dog, non-threatening from bikers perspective.
Cat 2: dog chases you a little menacing but owner immediately calls for dog, no contact.
Cat 3: dog chases you, menacing, owner doesn't call back but no contact.
Cat 4: dog chases you, menacing, owner calls back but there is contact.
Cat 5: dog chases you, menacing, no owner and there is contact.
Cat 6: blood drawn or gear ripped from dog.

I have had all categories at one point or another. Owners usual response, "my dog has never done that before!" I'll have to think about the wild animal encounter, that has it's own nuances depending on the animal.

My first seasonal encounter started out as a CAT 1 but rapidly moved to a CAT 4.  Lets see.. I'll keep that as a tally of 4.  At the end of the season, I 'll tally up the number and maybe give myself a prize unless someone else wants to join in?