Scott & Hilary
Ivan - that bites, and I'm really sorry that you had to go down. Best of
luck for a speedy recovery. (Think of it this way, you would've had to race
against Magnus for "January Champion" anyway - when you come back, many of
us will be shot from beating each other's brains out in February and
March!).
About the dog and the dog owners -
First off, who hasn't been chased and/or come into contact with an animal of
some kind? We all share the road - and not just with other cars.
Secondly, the owners of the dog in question are my neighbors. They are nice
people who have a very nice home, horse ranch, and piece of property. They
also have a tremendous amount of fencing - look at it sometime. They
invested thousands of dollars into vinyl fencing along the road to keep
their horses and their dogs free from interfering with cars, bikes, and
pedestrians along the road. The one problem is that they have to get in and
out of their property, so there must be a hole in the fence somewhere. And
- having been chased by that dog many, may times myself - the dog sometimes
cannot help itself but sneak down to the driveway and run into the road.
My point is, sometimes things just happen. We have a word for it: Accident.
What point is it to throw blame around? Blame the fencemakers for not
sealing off every bit of the property. Blame the owner for not investing
even more money into keeping their home separate from the neighborhood
(maybe a wall enclosing the whole property would've been better?). Blame
the dog for having the instincts to run after something. Blame the city for
not building a barrier between road and home.
My family and I have dogs. And we have fencing. And we try to keep our
dogs off of Skyline for their safety and the safety of others. But if they
happen to get out, through a series of unfortunate occances, and knock a
rider off of their bike, are you going to reasonably say that me or my dog
ought to be put down?
Let's focus our energies elsewhere - like wishing Ivan a speedy recovery.
Scott Powell
Team Oregon
Skyline Neighborhood Association
_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE*
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail