No offense dog lovers...

So I am tired...tired of being painted a villain simply because I am not fan of dogs. I am well aware that there are millions of people out there that LOVE their dogs. That is totally fine with me, I do think that dog people are extremely loving people who possess the ability to enjoy those slobbery creatures that are loud and messy. I am also aware that children are much like dogs (they are loud and messy and you do have to clean up their poo for a few years). The problem I have with dog people is that they are shocked and dismayed when anyone is a little threatened by their beloved dog.

The other night was Superbowl Sunday, an American pastime, icon whatever you want to call it. I am not a huge fan of football but I totally support my husbands wishes to watch that game (after all it only happens once a year). In my show of support I attended a party at my husband's brothers home. It was a fun night filled with food, fun and lots of laughs. We went to leave their house quite late. As we exited the house with two tired children in tow we saw two large dogs bounding towards us barking and snarling at us. My oldest has a phobia of dogs and she jumped into Daddy's arms screaming, while I was holding our nine month old and fumbling trying to open the front door while screaming myself. I got back into the house with my heart racing and found to my frustration a number of amused people.

The owner of the dogs lived next door and was a little flabbergasted that we might have a problem with two dogs running towards us as if in attack mode. Others found it funny that I was so scared. Now I'm not saying that anyone hurt my feelings (besides the dogs), because lets face it, the sight of a grown woman ready to fall into tears over two boxers is a little funny. Especially when the people familiar with the home and the dogs know that they are harmless and more bark than bite.

The frustration for me dawned when I collected myself and found myself terribly embarrassed by acting and feeling like a little girl again. My whole life I have been treated bemusedly because of my disaffection for canines. When I was little my aunts and uncles would laugh at me running into the house to avoid getting mauled by the many dogs running off leashes and out of fences in rural Canada. Even in the movies I watched growing up anyone who didn't like dogs was painted as the evil character. Whether it's Disney movies or romantic comedies. Women especially who freaked when the dogs bounded in were the characters who were unmasked as the seedy, city people who don't love anyone, let alone dogs. It is often the acid test in a romantic comedy or television show to see if the woman is really as good as she seems.

I am just so tired of feeling like a bad person because (I feel like I have to say it quietly because it feels evil even to think it) I just don't like dogs. I might be able to trace it back to an experience walking through a cow pasture one day when I was about 6 and two fighting dogs ran up to me and were basically fighting between my legs. My sweet three year old started disliking dogs around the time she was 18 months old and after entering a friends house a small dog jumped on her back and started assaulting her before I could snatch her up and save her.

Please don't hate me dog lovers. I love people and would never want to hurt any (person's) feelings. Just don't hate me because I am not an animal lover. And I want to stand up and say that it doesn't make me a bad person.