To SWA: See? I don't hate dogs.

Since I live in the dorms, we're not allowed to have pets. This, however, has not stopped one of my friends. JW (a friend, not me. Really.) has been keeping a dog in her apartment since 2L year. Since periodically the staff have to come in and clean the windows/clean the carpet/replace filters, JW has to find somewhere to hide the dog on occasion. So this time, she asked me to dog-watch. Since I am a cat person, I said no. But Waffles (the dog) is really cute, so I changed my mind. All I would have to do is watch him for a few hours while JW is in class and the staff people clean her windows. EASY.


JW drops Waffles off in my room and leaves some toys for Waffles to play with. I watch him while I am reading for class. This all goes according to plan for the first hour. Read. Watch Waffles. Throw ball and train Waffles to bring it back to me. Go back to reading.

Suddenly, Waffles starts barking. I think maybe JW is approaching the door because whenever someone walks by, Waffles runs over to the door and stares at it. Suddenly, I hear a knock. Can she be back already? I look through the peep hole and see a stranger. Uh oh. I open the door a crack to see who it is. The guy is another student who lives down the hall and heard the barking as he was walking past.

stranger: "Do you have a dog in there?"
me: "Uh yeah. It's not mine though, I'm just watching it for a friend."
stranger: "I had to leave mine back in Oregon. How do you sneak it out to go to the bathroom?"
me: "Oh, well my friend just lays down these pads and the dog does his stuff on them."

As I am having this conversation, Waffles zooms out through the crack and takes off down the hall. I glance down to see what is happening and lunge forward to try to catch him before he makes his escape to freedom. I proceed to headbutt the stranger in the chin as I try to catch Waffles. The stranger steps back with a groan and I mutter an apology as I run by him and chase Waffles. After making sure he's ok, I proceed to chase Waffles.

Waffles is small. And fast. And likes freedom. I can't catch him. We end up having to surround him, me and the stranger. I scoop up Waffles and take him back into my room.

This is definitely the first time I've headbutted a complete stranger within the first minute of meeting him.