I have decided to institute an Idiot of the Month Award, although I reserve the right to award it in between for really spectacular stupidity. Of course the “winner” will be as unaware of the victory as they are of responsible dog ownership, but let their various behaviours be a lesson to us all.
This first award is a joint effort.
I was disrupted whilst at home on the telephone by a woman outside, shouting into a mobile telephone. She was completely absorbed in her conversation and suddenly veered across the road. It was then, with horror, that I realised that she was accompanied by a Labrador, off-lead. He had stopped to sniff a bin bag and panicked when he looked up and she was no longer ahead. He then heard her shouting and shot across the road, narrowly missing being hit by a van going rather too fast.
She carried on, oblivious.
Idiot number two was sitting on a bench on the corner of the A316 and a side road. He was accompanied by his off-lead terrier for whom he was kicking a tennis ball towards the traffic. He then screamed at his dog as it careered towards passing cars.
Obviously didn’t see that that might be a problem.
So “congratulations” to our first winners – jolly glad that I didn’t have to hose your dog off the side of a vehicle or hone my first aid skills on mangled drivers.