it all depends on how you look at it.

I get up at 3:30 in the morning to take my pit bull-mix dogs out for some exercise. Although walking is my preference, I have recently been trying to run at least a few tenths of a mile, usually on a secluded road behind the main street where, that early, you find no traffic, no people and no stop signs.

This morning I took off and either snagged my toe on a warped piece of concrete or on the back end of a dog that was not running quite fast enough, but either way, I felt myself losing my balance and plummeting to the earth. (aside: at 5’3” the plummet wasn’t that far, but when you are going down you feel like you are 7’1”!)

As I neared the ground, it occurred to me to put down my right hand and flip my body to land on my back on the patch of grass between the cement walkway and the street. Sure enough, I flipped over, didn’t scrape anything except my right hand, and I laid there to catch my breath.

 We now have three possible interpretations of what happened next...

1)      10 month old pit mix view: Clay Mutthew saw me on the ground and assumed it was playtime. He jumped on my chest with a smile on his face and his tail wagging. (by the way, the 10 year old pit, Faith, didn’t do anything but look at me impatiently, so I would continue the walk.)

2)      How I saw it: Clay, misinterpreting my falling for a heart attack, jumped on my chest to administer CPR…even though the first rule is if the victim is breathing and alert, they probably don’t need CPR. At least he tried.

3)      How someone would have viewed it had they looked out and seen the event: old woman lying on ground being attacked by vicious dog. Call 911!

Luckily I was not hurt, the dog was not impounded and we were able to finish our walk with no additional incident.

Maybe I’ll try running some other day.