The other day while taking Heidi, our Miniature Dachshund, for a walk, I stepped into a diner at Queen East and Broadview to pick up a sandwich. Looking out through the window, I saw a large man crouching down beside Heidi, whom I’d tied up to some pipes.
He had massive, swollen hands that were speckled with scars, and beneath a baseball hat that said Toronto Police on it, he had long salt and pepper hair that was pulled into a haphazard ponytail. He wore a black leather bomber jacket, emblazoned with some sort of Asian script, oversized sunglasses, and a large set of 1970’s style headphones covering his ears. His chin protruded abnormally, and as I watched him petting my dog– his hand pretty much the same size as her–I felt some anxiety, so I went outside.
I stood beside him and said hello. He gave me a vague look, almost irritated, but said nothing. His attention focused, he kept patting the dog, who didn’t seem to mind. After a minute or two, I said hello again, and the man looked up at me and shouted, “DO I KNOW YOU? DO I KNOW YOU?”
Calmly, I told him that Heidi was my dog, and this softened him. Slowly, and in a child-like manner, he told me that he liked dogs and wanted to know why she was tied up. As I explained this, he continued to pet Heidi, telling me that she was fine and that I shouldn’t worry. I, also petting the dog, told him that I wasn’t worried, but the truth is that I was.
I went back inside the diner to check on my sandwich, all the while looking out the window, the dog looking back at me. When my back was turned I heard her barking and quickly went outside. The man had been shouting at her ” WHO”S THAT? WHO’S THAT?” when he saw me watching through the window, and this startled Heidi and caused her to bark. I told him that probably frightened her, but he just told me that he liked dogs and was good with them.
Reluctantly, I went back in the diner one more time to see if my sandwich was ready, and almost immediately I heard an explosion of barking and some yelling. I ran outside to see another large man, who also looked mildly impaired, standing at distance from Heidi and the other man. The crouching man told me that this other guy had scared Heidi, although he didn’t say how, and then he began to yell at him, ” DON’T YOU BE SCARING HER, YOU HEAR WHAT I’M SAYING?! YOU HEAR WHAT I’M SAYING?!” a trembling rage rising in his voice. People at the bus stop were looking uncomfortable, holding their purses just a little bit tighter, and so I took Heidi and thanked the man for looking after her and left.
It was an awkward circumstance. This man, a little bit like Frankenstein’s Creature, clearly wanted nothing more than to quietly pet my dog, but his emotional responses to the world were so intense and unmediated, that a current of danger ran just beneath the surface. Walking away, I wondered what was listening to on his headphones, and if he always needed something to block out the confusing sounds of the city around him.