On a nice day after a half year of not riding due to an especially cold snowy winter it was time to get back in the saddle. A few blocks from my house this large dog, a tricolor collie, started to run beside me. He was not trying to attack, he just wanted to run beside me. That lasted about two blocks. For some reason only known to the dog, he suddenly wanted to be on the other side of me. To do so, he ran up to the front of the bike then turned knocking us both down. He yelped, got up, and then ran home. I just got a little road rash on the palm.

Three days later I was biking on a multiuse trail and passed a lady walking a large dog. Just as I was passing, the dog saw a squirrel, bolted, broke free of its leash, ran in front of me, and caused the second dog collision of the week. This time I got road rash on my other hand.

The next day I was on the trail again when a large lab came running out of the bushes full speed ahead and plowed into me. Road rash on top of road rash hurts and it forced the question,"What am I doing, is biking really worth it?"

Needless to say, I didn't stop biking but it was strange that in 45 years of biking I have had 3 dog collisions and they were all in the same week.