At the tender age of four, my parents surprised me with a new red bike. One day, I decided to take my bike for a spin around the block. Suddenly out of nowhere, a humongous dog came running towards me with his owner, chasing behind him. The dog lunged at me, knocking me off my bike and onto the ground. A dog attack was the beginning of what has become a paralyzing fear of big dogs for most of my life. Unfortunately, a few years later, I had another encounter with the same vicious dog. It was a cold wintery afternoon so, my sister and I decided, we should race home after school. She had on her favorite winter attire, a big brown Eskimo jacket, which made her look like a big bear. As we raced home, my sister sprinted pass me, coming face to face with the big dog. Instantly, the dog aggressively attacked my sister, ultimately taking chunks of flesh out of her leg. I was horrified, physically unable to move or help my sister fight off the big dog. The dog felt threatened by the big brown Eskimo jacket my sister was wearing, he thought it to be an animal, which is why he attacked. .
The dog attacks have instilled a fear of big dogs, which I cannot shake. Whenever I visited my friends, they would assure me their dogs were gentle and friendly, but I was still scared. I often would climb to the highest point in the house (usually kitchen counter kept me safe), to get away from their dogs. My reactions encouraged the dogs; they saw this as a game and would begin to growl and bark towards me. At this point, my friends' parents had no choice but to take the dogs into another room within the house. When I was six years old, my parents tried to help me get over my fear of dogs by borrowing a friend's dog. This friend had a huge, five-year-old boxer name Sandy. At first, I was hesitant to meet the dog, but I wanted get over my fear big dogs. We decided to meet Sandy and her owner at the park one Saturday afternoon, in order for us to become acquainted.