Photo:  tanakawho / Flickr.com / Creative Commons 

Reggie was a fluff dog, some kind of  half terrier mix, that our old neighbors rescued.  The first time I met him up close and personal on the sidewalk, on a leash held by his host, he bit me on the face—right above the eye—he drew blood, and that was that.  A viscious attack.  I never got up close and personal with Reggie again.

Reggie had “issues” I guess.  He was fine with people, but with other dogs—and there were other citings of bitings—he was dangerously aggressive, despite his small size.

Now, I must confess, when I get on the sidewalk, I got to tell you, if I see dogs who look fluffy and small I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as biters, I get worried. I get nervous.

Then just the other day, I heard that Reggie, inexplicably, had hurled himself out of an  open three-story window to his death.  No one else was home at the time, and he had just moved there. There probably were no screens on the windows.  And everyone was mystified.  Was it a suicide (he left no note.)  An accident?  Just plain crazy?

No, I kept my mouth shut at the time, but I have a theory.  A dog would have walked by the home, and Reggie, in his blind rage and aggression would have propelled himself to the attack and, no, physics was not his strong suit, actually he had no strong suits, he was just a poor mutt with issues.  “Rescue Reggie” the other dogs called him, though not to his face, but from a safe distanc—still I think he could hear.

Did he “deserve” it?  Who knows?  I am bad at constructing the moral of the story, it’s not my strong suit.  I didn’t feel sad that he passed—he was a vicious biter after all—but I mourned a little bit the world that had created him, if indeed it had.

But who ever heard of a “self-made” biter?  Isn’t everyone who is “self-made” supposed to be heroic and wealthy? 

Face it, Hgurl, Reggie was a loser who bit you in the face. 

But I am sad, just a little.  I have a remembrance of Reggie, right here, above my eye.  Strange, I would probably be the only one not to forget were it not for his mysterious leap to oblivion from the third-story window.  Now he’s the talk of the block.

Lurve,

Hgurl