[Buckshot]

There's always one not too far away, but not usually on my person. But here's some food for thought...

We live in a typical cookie-cutter suburban neighborhood, medium houses, small lots. Fairly quiet, rarely any criminal behavior, usually juvenile petty theft. Pretty trouble-free as neighborhoods go.

A while back my wife and I walked my sister-in-law and her daughter out into the front yard to see them off after a visit. It was mid-afternoon and there was no one else visible up and down our street. While we were talking, this large Rottweiler appears out of nowhere and comes loping up the street, right up the sidewalk, right across the front yard in a bee-line for our small group. We had never seen the dog before and had no idea where it had come from.

Now, as it turns out, the dog was friendly and had gotten out of an open gate at a house up the street. He'd headed straight for the first folks he saw, just to make friends I guess. But afterward I was standing there thinking, "What if that big damned Rotty HADN'T been friendly? Here I am, Mr. Prepared, Mr. Safety and Security, standing ten yards away from a house full of weapons, and if that dog had gone after one of us I'd have been standing there with my johnson in my hand, as stupid and helpless as a liberal Democrat.

I guess you just never know what the day will bring.