I have become that crazy dog mom.

This morning I was walking Henri and she kept looking behind us, distracted by something. A man was walking up behind us at a pretty fast pace and Henri wanted to get to him bad. She has exactly zero stranger danger. As the guy passed, he opened his palm to reveal a dog biscuit of the homemade variety. As his hand made it’s way to her open mouth, he asked me “can I give the pup a treat?” Of course I said “sure”, but as soon as he walked away I made her spit out the treat.

I can’t explain it, but I just had a bad feeling about the man. Maybe it’s a fact that as kids, we are warned to not accept candy from strangers. As college students, we learn to never set our drinks down or accept drinks from strangers. As adults in the working world, we learn to politely refuse food brought in by non-hygienic and/or cat hoarding coworkers. I like my guacamole sans disease and cat hair, thanks. Henri is my baby, I didn’t feel right about her eating something from a random guy walking by who may have been totally harmless, but just seemed weird to me.

He wasn’t walking a dog, yet he had a homemade dog treat in his hand. He didn’t stop to pet Henri, he just shoved the treat in her mouth and kept going. All of it felt weird, and maybe for absolutely no reason. Maybe I really am a psychotic overprotective dog mom, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. In the past year in my town, a person was going around poisoning dogs during the middle of the day by giving them poisoned food while their owners were at work. Another person (or maybe the same person?) was lacing dog treats with nails and leaving them at the dog park. Just a few weeks ago, my neighbor told me that a woman tried to steal her pomeranian dog WHILE SHE WAS STANDING RIGHT THERE! She called the cops and reported it, and they confirmed that several dogs have gone missing lately in the area. What is wrong with people?!

For now…we’ll play it safe and not eat candy from strangers, and I’ll keep her on a tight leash 🙂 Thank God she’s not a real child who can get codependency and attachment issues.