There's "Ass" in the Word Assume

While walking Ripley during a small break around lunch time a few blocks away from the office, we turned around a corner about 150 feet from the front door of our building.

Across the street from our building is a particularly large building under construction, and thus, that means an active construction zone with a lot of workers, machines and deliveries.

Ripley is especially skiddish around this area when construction is going on, and she frequently ducks and tucks her tail under her on this street.

On this walk however, there was a particularly loud noise as I'm guessing a bunch of pipes were dropped, causing a sudden and loud clanging for about 10 seconds.

Ripley, already a little unnerved, decided it was the perfect time to dash for the front door of the office, yanking on the leash.

Now, I'm not the type of owner who insists on coddling my puppy every time she's frightened by a noise or sound event, and decided to deal with it the way most are recommending: don't reinforce the "oohhhhh, it's oooooookay, don't worry" reaction and instead, distract them from the noise and reward them for taking their mind off of the event.

So, in doing so, I pulled Ripley back toward me (spinning her around a bit in the process), pointed at my feet and told her to come and sit. She looked at me and walked over but didn't sit, prompting me to repeat myself. She then sat and looked at me.

I was satisfied for a few seconds of her being calm, so I told her "good girl!" in a happy, hi-pitched voice and then had her walk with me toward the office.

A woman was approaching us and as she passed us, she turned around and bluntly said "don't mistreat your dog, if you don't like it, give it to the Humane Society."

Shocked by what I just heard, and in disbelief of what she actually said, I turned around and said "excuse me???" She snapped back, "you heard me... if you don't like your puppy, give it to the Humane Society. Don't mistreat it."

Now, there are two very understandable reactions I could have given her: bitch her out like there was no tomorrow, complete with racial slurs for poor measure, or gracefully bid her adieu and go on with my day. I seriously considered the former option but opted for the latter, closing the potentially-explosive confrontation with "you have a nice day now" and a smile.

But as I turned around, I bit down on my lip hard. How dare she even assume that for a second I didn't like my dog, simply off the very small display of canine management she had seen. In no way did I beat or strike my dog, nor did I touch her with my hand or foot. Nor did I twirl her around and yank her back causing her to slide or roll on the sidewalk.

There is definitely common sense in the phrase "There is 'ass' in 'assume'." That woman is prime example of it.