MOLLY!

Yesterday afternoon I'm running on the cross country course at OSU when off in the distance I see a dog sprinting around like a damn banshee. I do what most runners do and just prepare and hope for the best. Here is the situation, I had just a finished a workout, its 20 degrees, and I'm not feeling that well. I just wanted to trudge through my three mile cooldown and be on my way home. The course at Oklahoma State is a permanent course that is maintained year round and awesomely enough its primary purpose is running. But being that we at OSU are pretty good people all around we share the course with anyone who wants to use it, there are no real rules but common courtesies do exist (like leashes). So I approach this obviously hyper dog and she sprints right at me with all her speed. There is no malintent in her eyes but just sheer joy. I continue to run hoping she will swerve but brace for impact as this rocket speeds towards me. She lovingly plows into my left leg nearly knocking me to the ground, and seemingly just as I recover here she comes again. Her owner begins screaming, "Molly" at the top of his lungs trying to calm the beast but she can't help herself as I'm a pretty good looking guy. The screams of "Molly" occasionally become a fairly silent moan of "sorry." I continue to run just trying to get out of there and I make my way down the course I hear the screams slowly fade as the owner still has no control of his dog.

First off, Molly, it's not your fault. Had I been walking I'm sure our encounter would have been much more enjoyable. But your skull ramming into my bad ankle did actually hurt quite a bit. Next, to the owner, you need to either increase your level of control over the sweet but excitable Molly or get a damn leash. It could crazy long and she could run wild but you still have the ability to limit how many people's legs she plows through at least until she becomes a bit older and more obedient. Piss off the wrong person and Molly could be gone. What if I'm a 60 year old jogger and Molly knocks me off my feet and breaks something? Tragedy of the Commons I suppose, in a publicly shared space some people will take advantage of the resource which causes increased cost to other individuals and reduces the overall value of the place. Oh well, just put your dog on a leash in heavily trafficked areas.