Do I annoy you like you annoy me?

And by you, I mean some dog owners.

I hesitate to write this because there are many dog lovers who are near and dear to my heart, including my brother and sister-in-law (who are giving C/D a baby boy cousin in the fall---yippee for their first nearby cousin!!!) I hope they know I don't include them in this rant. C/D are scared of Henry and Chewy, but they love them a lot (from a distance). But after what happened today I have to explain why it appears I hate dogs.

I don't hate dogs. I like them. I don't adore them like some people, but I like them and would love to have one someday when my kids are older. But generally I'm indifferent about them. It's (some of) their owners who drive me nuts. I realized I don't understand your obsession with your dog, much like you probably don't understand my love for my kids. I'm ok with that...but I also generally think that I try to keep my kids from getting in your way. Many dog owners, however, don't.

Case in point. Today we were at the beach. Many people let their dogs run rampant on the beaches. Sometimes they shake their wet hair and it sprays us (sort of annoying). Sometimes they run over C and D (annoying). Today a dog ran up and peed in our beach bucket AS WE WERE USING IT TO BUILD SANDCASTLES AND AS THE OWNER WAS STANDING RIGHT THERE (REALLY annoying). And what does the owner do? She sorta rolls her eyes, picks up the bucket and haphazardly washes it out in the water and hands it back to me with no more than a half-assed sorry with almost a little laugh, as if to say "What can you do?" Kind of like one might do with a kid. Only it isn't a kid, it is a dog, and if my kid peed on something of yours I'd be mortified and fall all over myself apologizing. I walked up to Andrew and he knew exactly what I was thinking..."and you wonder why I am so down on (some) dogs' (owners)?"