Recently I saw an unleashed dog—small, white, fluffy, older—standing outside a corner store at 73rd and 37th. I watched it for a minute as I waited to cross the street. When I knelt and talked to it, it was friendly but looked a little forlorn. I opened the door to the store and asked if the owner was in there. He came out, and I said he should have tied up his dog—that it could have run off or been snatched by someone. He was (to say the least) not very receptive: He called me a b--tch and told me to shut up.
I followed him and his still-unleashed dog a couple of blocks. The dog was well behaved—did not run into the street or anything. I didn't feel like the dog was in imminent danger when it was walking with the man, though it got pretty far ahead of him at times. That seemed risky. I've heard stories about dogs being snatched and used for training fighting dogs, like pit bulls.
In the end, I felt like maybe I was being a stick-in-the mud who should have kept her mouth shut. I tried to make it clear I was worried about the dog's safety, not about him following some arbitrary rule. I really was mostly concerned when the dog was outside the shop alone.
So why am I posting about it now? I guess maybe I want someone to tell me I was right. Or to say, "Oh, that's just Nick and Buster, no need to worry!"