An Acquired Taste by Darrell Maloney

Author:Darrell Maloney [Maloney, Darrell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-06-20T04:00:00+00:00

-27-

“Do you mind me asking,” Amanda said, “Why you’re afraid of dogs?”

“It’s a lifelong phobia. I was attacked when I was very small…”

Normally she’d have left it at that, but Amanda seemed to be waiting for more.

“I was taken from my stroller by a dog very much like this one. I was so young I don’t even remember it. But I heard the story a thousand times as my mom and grandmother told it to people to explain all the scars I had.

“He took me and shook me like a rag doll and would have likely killed me, until a brave postman went up to him and kicked him hard in the ribs.

“The dog dropped me and turned on the postman instead, and mauled him pretty severely as well. He surely saved my life that day.

“Suddenly, they said the dog stopped as though he realized what he’d done and regretted it.

“He lay down and looked very sad, as though realizing he’d just earned a death sentence and accepting it. They said when the dog catcher came he went willingly without a fuss. My mother always talked about his eyes. How sad they were. They could tell he was sorry but had no way to make amends.

“She said they were the saddest eyes she’d ever seen on man or beast.”

Amanda was perplexed.

“And they never determined what it was that set him off?”

“At first they thought it was rabies, but he showed none of the other signs. And they said he became passive too quickly and stayed that way. That wasn’t typical of rabid dogs.

“When he was put down they tested him for rabies but no one expected them to come back confirmed. By that time they’d pretty much ruled out rabies so nobody was surprised when the test was negative.

“My parents talked to a lot of experts and they concluded he got aggressive because of a trigger. Probably a squeaky wheel on my stroller. He was a rescue, you see, and apparently his first owner beat him ferociously. They told my mom that apparently he saw or heard something which he associated with his early days, and he felt the need to lash out to protect himself from being abused again.”

“You know, Tillie, not all dogs are dangerous just because one attacks.”

“I know that. But phobias don’t have to be reasonable or rational. If they were, they wouldn’t be phobias. The very nature of a phobia is it doesn’t make sense to rational people. But to the person who has one, it’s terrifying.”

“Would you like for us to take Hero with us?”

“No.”

Her one word answer, and the resolve in which it was delivered, surprised even her.

“He saved my life. He stayed with me and protected me and tried to nurse me back to health. I owe him something.”

Amanda went to the dog and petted him, then scratched him behind the ears.

“Have you ever been able to pet a dog before?”

“My parents used to take me to a pet store as part of my therapy.

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