good luck with the car, sj.

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in a situation like the one that happened at that bus stop, how could a bystander help? Aside from giving the two-legged animals pieces of her or his mind? My instinct would be to place myself between the aggressive dog and the human with the non-aggressive dog.

That is an excellent question.

In this case, there was more than one aggressive person and I'd never advise you to jump into a mob.

Though, an inquisitive shout of "HEY, what's going on?" in a non-aggressive tone will sometimes get the participants to ask themselves the same question.

And your neighbor's little boy, Bonny, how touching

No kidding. It made me tear up again this morning as I passed their house.

The child has waaaay more in common with Cagney...they both are made of torpedo parts. And, frankly, as the kid's mother said, Bartleby really wanted _nothing_ to do with him. Still, it's so sweet and so poignant.

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bonny, in that situation, I think my snap instinct would be to run the other way, but I assume that would make the aggressive dog want to give chase?

That is so fucking scary. And people SUCK.

My neighborhood can be sketchy (c.f., people shooting up heroin in their car across the street from my house), but all the dog owners I've encountered have been 100% cool about defusing any potentially aggressive behavior.

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bonny, in that situation, I think my snap instinct would be to run the other way, but I assume that would make the aggressive dog want to give chase?

Right. Except that a dog in prey pursuit is going to jump, whatever you do. I wanted Cagney _behind_ me. If we ran, I could not guarantee that.

I instruct the walkers to first seek shelter, then a weapon. Thankfully, our neighborhood has lots of iron fences, over which you can throw an at risk dog.

In this particular case, there was no shelter and I was in as much risk from the people as the dog.

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In this case, there was more than one aggressive person and I'd never advise you to jump into a mob.

I might think twice about an armed mob, but my size and sturdiness can create an effective barrier. I was thinking more about the dog than the mob, though.

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My car is fixed. It didn't cost me anything. And I can still spend the day in RI like I planned to.

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Good news, sj!

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Great news, sj!! Drive on!

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Okay, I'm looking for confirmation of something I've decided to do.

After the root canal I had before vacation, when I got back from vacation and had the appointment for the temporary crown, I had a lot of swelling and tenderness of the gums, and so they put me on antibiotics and didn't do the temporary crown. (This was last week.)

Today, after 6 days of a 10-day antibiotic course, the swelling and tenderness is a little better but not gone. I had a follow-up appointment to again try to do the temporary crown. But because of the continued swelling, they took an x-ray. The root canal is fine -- it didn't fail -- but the dentist says the infection looks worse than it did on the pre-root canal x-ray, and the only solution is to pull the tooth.

I ask, can't we try another antibiotic first -- because if whatever is causing the infection isn't susceptible to the antibiotic, then of course the antibiotic isn't going to work.

The dentist says no, you should be better by now. I say, I'd like to keep my tooth if at all possible, and trying a different antibiotic seems like a reasonable option. Dentist says no, finish the 10 days of your current antibiotic, and maybe it'll get better, but you probably have to have the tooth pulled.

I say okay, leave, and lose my shit totally. I have a real weak spot around my crappy teeth, because I feel like it proves I am a hick who doesn't take care of myself at all. (This is irrational, and I get that.)

(I'm still at home, BTW. I needed to calm down before going in to work.)

But I did calm down, and here's what I'm thinking. Every time I complain about my dentist, Tim tells me to go to his dentist here in the neighborhood. His dentist is not on my insurance, so I've stuck with the tooth-pulling, criticizing mean dentists who are on my insurance.

But I'm annoyed enough at the refusal to try another antibiotic before just yanking my tooth out -- a tooth which, I need to add, DOES NOT HURT at all -- that I want to go to Tim's dentist ASAP to get a second opinion.

So, I'm wanting validation for this. And I guess I do have a question -- is it a bad thing to switch dentists mid-procedure? Like, I had the root canal done, and it has a temporary filling, but it still needs a crown. Is it bad to switch dentists in the middle of this? (Well, I guess it's not the "middle" according to my dentist, because she wants to pull the tooth to end all this. So I guess that's my answer.)

So -- call Tim's dentist? See if *he* will try another antibiotic, or at least give me a second opinion about the NON-HURTING tooth needing pulled?

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And I'm headed in to work now, so I will check back for validation later. Any insults you care to heap on my current dentist are welcome, too.

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