Joggers, canines and biting commentaries



I’ve never been bitten by a rabid fox. Not even by a an ill-humored dog. But I’ve had some close calls.

When I heard that a woman jogger in Prescott, Ariz., was bitten by a fox and was forced to run a mile with the animal clamped to her arm like a vise, I counted my lucky stars.

A fellow runner, I’ve met some ill-tempered dogs but I’ve been able, so far, to fend them off.

Then a few days later the First Dog, Barney, bit a news reporter on the White House lawn. Actually, the reporter was bitten on the index finger while the two were on the lawn.

Fortunately, the woman jogger and an animal control officer who was also bitten by the rabid fox, are undergoing rabies treatments. And the White House reporter is said to be “a good sport about it all.”

While Barney’s punishment is ultimately to be banned from the White House, he can exult in being able to retire to the comforts of his Crawford, Texas, ranch – far from the probing fingers of those irritating reporters.

I’m assuming the fox’s fate has been determined and it’s taken its last bite out of prime cut of limb.

An Associated Press story said the Arizona woman was running on a trail when the hydrophobic fox went for her foot and leg. When she grabbed it by the neck, the critter latched onto her arm.

With it tightly secured anyway, the woman said she wanted it tested for rabies. Therefore, she jogged the mile back to her car, extracted the fox from her arm and dumped it into her trunk before driving to the hospital.

I assume the animal control officer was bitten while attempting to move the offender from the car to wherever it was to be tested for the rabies virus.

Meanwhile at the White House, Jon Decker of Reuters reached down to give Barney a pat on the head when America’s top canine, a Scottish terror, er terrier, took offense. Decker was later seen with a bandage wrapped around his right index finger, a particularly vulnerable area for a reporter who needs all 10 digits for typing those pithy reports from the world’s most powerful doghouse.

Another reporter was said to have recorded the incident on video and the whole sordid affair was on YouTube briefly before being taken off.

No reason was given for its removal from the Web site, but I’m suspecting the video is considered classified on the basis of national security. Look for it some day in the Bush Presidential Library.

I’ve had my close calls with dogs. When I was a boy there was a certain ornery collie down the road from where I lived. Every time I walked or biked by the house, the dog would threaten me.

Then one day I was walking by and the dog ran right up to me, lifted its front legs onto my chest then turned tail and ran back home.

My guess is he just wanted a close-up look at my face. I didn’t really mean to scare the guy.



Larry Penkava, who has written Now and Then since 1994, loves dogs but not enough to feed them filet of fist.