Tot’s dog encounter still haunts him 75 years later
Dog attacks spark calls for ramped up enforcement from Toronto councillors, March 28
When I was about three years old, my mother dressed me in my new hooded snowsuit and led me to the snow-filled churchyard adjacent to our Montreal apartment building.
Although the walkway to the church entrance had been shovelled, the snow in the yard was more than two feet deep. My mother thought I’d enjoy playing in it and she was so right! While she watched from the walkway, I laughed and bounced around and happily threw snow into the air.
Eventually I noticed a black dot a fair distance away, but I ignored it while I played and played. Then suddenly a glaring face with big floppy black ears was bounding toward me! Then it jumped, knocking me onto my back, with the deep snow falling all over me!
I closed my eyes to keep the snow out, but in the darkness, I could still feel the thing jumping on me. When I opened my mouth to yell to my mother, my mouth filled with falling snow. When I sniffed, my nose filled too, and I couldn’t breathe.
That’s all I remember. It was, after all, 75 years ago.
Apparently, my mother, in her knee-length dress and winter coat, waded through the deep snow to chase away the dog and rescue me. I never heard anything about a leash or an owner.
And although that dog had caused me no physical harm, I started to fear all dogs. If I saw one while walking to school, I would cross the street to avoid it.
By now, I’d describe the feeling as tension more than fear. But when- ever a dog is anywhere near me, the first thing I do is look for a leash — with a human attached.
Whenever I visit my friends who own a large dog, they put it into a room and close the door before I arrive. It just never seems to end.
So, when my partner and I recently heard about the young child attacked by an unleashed and danger- ous dog in Little Norway Park, our hearts went out to him. I can’t even imagine what his “life-altering” injuries might be. Will they haunt him, too, for 75 years?