Gatophobia / Cynophobia

So, I am one of those people who suffers from gatophobia [fear of cats] AND cynophobia [fear of dogs]. My fear is irrational, really. But who can explain away fears, on the other hand? I cannot comfortably sit in the same space with either, no matter how mild/tame the owners claim it is.

When running, I come across several dog walkers along my path. Their dogs are usually on a leash but I cross the road to the other side, regardless of how short the leash is. I simply do not want to take chances LOL! So this morning while running, from the corner of my eyes I see this dog coming straight at me at full speed!!! I panic, and actually scream! Reflex response to fear, didn’t even think about it. I stop dead in my tracks, and so does the dog. I am a little paralysed at the near fatal encounter [according to me]. I look at the dog, it’s looking at me, and my heart is pounding. And I realise it’s actually a puppy LOL! At that point I hear the owner across the road shouting out loud how harmless the ‘dog’ is. “He only wants to play and run along with you”, he says. O no! I think to myself. NO WAY I am running with a ‘dog’ that close to me. I tell him no can do, I am scared of dogs and he assures me the ‘dog’ is harmless.  And I see that the ‘dog’ has gone back to its owner, and is at heel. Poor thing, I must have scared it. So I look at the ‘dog’ to be sure that it has no plans of running along with me, and start running again. And I think to myself, poor thing, I must have really scared it. But, in my defence, it scared me first!