The world according to...

Recently while I was out riding early one morning, two street dogs that I often feed ran to greet me. I had no chow with me, so I simply played with them for a while before continuing. Tongues lolling in their "dog smiles," they followed, racing eagerly behind my bike, then alongside me, occasionally darting into the middle of the road to frolic with excitement.

As some cars were on the move, I stopped to motion the dogs out of the road. However, thinking that my waving arms were an invitation to play, they became even more excitable – darting towards me, then dancing out to the centre of the road. Even though their street sense alerted them to oncoming vehicles, I was still concerned, as there is always room for error and not all drivers care to slow down or stop for animals in their path.

As one vehicle was approaching somewhat rapidly, I gesticulated with urgency for the dogs to move out of its way. They responded instantly by racing back towards my bike and jumping up at me to be patted.

At that moment the driver of the approaching vehicle was passing us. He stuck his head out of the window and shouted something to the effect of “Mash! Mash!” accompanied by a guttural noise, somewhat like a cross between a vicious growl and a hawk of disgust or disapproval.

Like a protective mother, my immediate reaction was to call out “No!” – in defence of what I perceived as him shouting and being unnecessarily aggressive toward innocent dogs.

In a split second, however, I realised that he had possibly misunderstood the situation – as had I.

From his perspective, I was probably a defenceless female biker, energetically waving my arms to chase dogs away as they raced toward me and jumped up to attack. In his quick assessment of the scenario, I was trying to protect myself from the dogs – rather than protect the dogs from the vehicles.

His misunderstanding of the scenario may have been coloured by his past encounters with dogs. Perhaps he had been bitten once, or had seen someone being bitten by similarly-acting canines. Perhaps he had grown up around adults who instilled in him the commonly-held island belief that dogs are dangerous and that whenever one is approaching, it is advisable to pick up a stick to hit it, or a stone to pelt at it, to chase it away.

Similarly, based on my repeated experience of encountering people who (for various reasons) fear and/or dislike the average dog and treat them as such, I initially interpreted his aggressive tone in line with that perspective.

Misunderstanding my reaction, he could have gone on to tell someone: “I saw a woman getting attacked by two dogs. I shouted at the dogs to leave her alone but she was so ungrateful – she shouted ‘No!’ to stop me.”

Likewise, had I not understood that he had been in "protective mode," I could have said to someone: “You see how people don’t like animals? This man was driving by and just shouted aggressively at two friendly dogs without reason.”

As human beings, each of us has our pair of proverbial glasses through which we see the world and interpret the words and actions of others. Unless we take time to consider or (where possible) discuss different angles and possibilities mutually, we only see in our way – which is not always accurate and can lead to unnecessary inner/outer conflict.

Recently a friend and I stopped to feed a dog along a deserted road. Wanting also to provide her with water, but not having a bowl, we decided to make one out of a regular plastic shopping bag. As the bag was too light to stand and hold water, I gathered a few large stones to create a rim within which the bag could be placed for support. One final stone was needed – and as my friend reached to pick one up, the dog darted away in absolute terror.

To that dog, who had clearly been pelted at and probably hurt by stones in the past, the simple act of picking one up caused her to perceive it as a weapon or source of hurt, as opposed to something beneficial, being kindly used to help quench her thirst.

In this world of multifaceted interactions and reactions, the following quote by writer Anaïs Nin is worth reflecting upon: “We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.”