Today while I was walking on a trail on Mount Warner in Hadley — a Trustees of Reservations conservation area — when a pack of five or six unleashed dogs ran at me.
At first, I thought they might be wild, but I finally did see a person down the trail. When I yelled to call the dogs, the person responded and all except one went back. That one, a pit bull, kept coming at me, running hard into me, and nipping. Fortunately, the dog was just exuberant and not malicious, and finally went off down the trail after the other dogs. Nevertheless, it was a scare I did not appreciate.
Early last summer, I was biking on the Norwottuck Rail Trail when an unleashed dog ran from a side trail onto the bike path just in front of my bike. I could not stop and ran into the dog and went down. The dog was uninjured, but my resulting knee injury caused me difficulty for several months.
In each of these cases, the dog owner was disobeying the rules in those areas that all dogs must be on leashes. Most dog owners obey the rule, but it is the few that can cause trouble. If you are a dog owner, please think twice about letting it off the leash where it is prohibited. There are other people to consider.
William Mullin
Amherst