An interesting thing happened to me on the way to the supermarket today - I think I may have witnessed a demonstration of human instinct, untainted by political correctness:)As I was heading up the walkway to my local supermarket, a mother and her young daughter, (not all parents are like the McCanns and leave toddlers unattended) were exiting through the sliding doors. Just outside, two dogs were tied up waiting for their owners to finish shopping. I have mentioned a few times before that this is quite common, (I have cropped an old photo to give you an idea of what I mean - look for the dog near the doors) and no dog ever goes missing or seem to cause problems.
Except on this occasion.
The little girl saw the dogs and instinctively went to pat the smaller of the two. For some reason the dog snapped at her. I use the phrase, "for some reason" as I have seen these dogs on many previous occasions and neither have reacted in this way when patted by kids. She wasn't bitten but was certainly scared. Even though her mum was holding her hand, (Lesson One in parenting skills Mr and Mrs McCann), the girl tore away from her grasp, ran towards me crying her eyes out and hugged my legs!
Her mother and I were both quite amused by the way she appeared to run to a man for protection!
Of course she picked the wrong one, as I am not great with either dogs or other people's children - I never know what to say to either. I resisted the urge to say, "did the naughty dog scare you?" and instead muttered something like "It's ok, he wont hurt you" which not even I found convincing. The mother ruffled her daughters hair and more or less treated it as a joke, and soon the ankle-biter was laughing with her.
Does this behaviour signify a revival of a woman's dependence on men for protection!
Please don't send me insulting emails complaining about the above comment - or I'll tell my mum.
