10/03/26: After a period of days apart due to family needs, my wife and I repaired to our local pub to bring each other up to date with events and to enjoy a quiet drink in civilised surroundings. This was temporarily marred by what appeared to be an entirely unnecessary disagreement between two dog owners.
I was concerned for both animals, who were innocent in the whole business. One of the owners verbally abused the other for no clear reason other than he seemed to take offence at the other’s dog. (who was a little larger than his own but looked placid enough.) What made things strange was that the two men clearly knew one another, and the abusive owner was happy to publicly disrupt the environment with a frankly pathetic macho display. He was scaring his own dog in the process, and I privately hoped something might happen to humiliate him.
Ultimately the man on the receiving end of the nonsense – and his partner and dog – chose to leave, which I felt was wrong. He struck me as a reasonable person and not someone to look for trouble, unlike the first. The protagonist stayed, his bewildered pet now a bit distressed. I hope the dog gets fed-up enough to turn on the idiot and bites him some day.