3.15.2012

Meet Eli, He Already Hates You

As I've mentioned (very briefly) in a previous post, there is a dog that lives on our street that I've been wanting to write about.

His name is Eli, and he hates people:

I took this picture from the safety of inside my car. 

He lives a few houses down and across the street from us. We had a chance to meet him when going on an afternoon walk several weeks ago. As soon as we came close enough to be a threat (which apparently was stepping off our driveway) Eli's round, puffball body became rigid and the incessant barking began. 

Before you mock me for having issues with something that looks like a child's toy, you should know that the entire time we were walking Eli specifically gunned for me. He would try to dodge around my husband and snap at my ankles. 

After a long enough time of my husband guarding me and cutting off Eli's attacks, he finally lost interest and ran off to torture someone else. The rest of our walk was great, and as we turned the corner onto our street on the way home I was relieved to not see Eli outside his house. 

As we were passing a cross-street, both of us heard a bark and looked up. Eli was (easily) three blocks down, and was sprinting as fast as all of the anger bunched up in his tiny self would allow. My husband and I, being sane, grounded, mature adults, took off running to try and make it to our front door before Eli caught up with us. By the time we hit our driveway Eli had closed the gap to one lawn and a mailbox. 

Luckily he seemed satisfied that we now understood the entire neighborhood was his territory, and turned around once he saw us heading into the house. 

Since then, Eli now maintains steady eye contact whenever he's out and we pass his house in our car (as documented in the picture above). Eli also followed my husband home when he drove by on his motorcycle, barking and snapping at the wheels. 

I'm not too sure why this dog hates us. I've seen him out when there are small children running around or other adults going about their business, and he doesn't seem to have quite the vendetta against the rest of our neighborhood as he does against us... though his owners have been out with him during those times and are quick to rein him in.  

Maybe he blames us for the pack of feral cats that now inhabits our street. They were born under our backyard shed last spring and we did nothing to stop it, because we're decent people and offing baby kittens isn't exactly my idea of a good time.

Whatever the case may be... I now drive the half mile to the park near our house, rather than walk it, because I live in fear of an animal that is the size of a baby koala.

On a happier note, we tried out a new gourmet burger place that just opened, which is a big deal in our happening college town. I had the turkey burger, and for the first time in my life wasn't sad that I was eating turkey instead of cow. Seriously, it was amazing. Also, they had a nutella milkshake that was out of this world:

The poorly photographed, but out of this world, nutella milkshake.

Happy Thursday!

4 comments:

  1. hahah! he looks like an angry old ewok... and i want a nutella shake! Fin.

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  2. Haha, has he snapped at your heels too, Michelle?

    Wow, I would live in fear too! Maybe he could be placated by some treats...?

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  3. HAHAHAHAHA! That is so awesome! I seriously think that little dogs can be so much more mean because they are making up for their size. True Story!

    Glad you made it out alive and survived! :)

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