This is the second in a series of instalments by F W Boreham from his essay, 'The Long Arm of Coincidence', soon to be included in the forthcoming book, The Best Essays of F W Boreham.Mad Dogs and Englishmen
"Or take another case. I have lived, roughly, about twenty-five thousand days. On only one of those days have I been bitten by a dog; but on that memorable day I was bitten by two. I had set out to visit a friend who lived about three miles from my own home. As I turned into his street, an infuriated dog rushed out of an open gate and savagely attacked me, fastening his teeth into my leg. Somewhat shaken, I managed to reach my friend's house, where my wound was bathed and bandaged."
'Every Dog is Allowed One Bite'
"An hour later I set out for home, and, almost within sight of it, was assailed by another dog and again bitten. Puzzled by the unwonted attention paid me that day by the canine tribe, I carefully examined everything about my person—my clothing, my walking-stick and the contents of my pockets. But everything was perfectly normal."
"People deeply versed in the mentality of dogs have suggested that the first attack had affected my nerve and that the second dog had sensed in me an attitude of apprehension and distrust which, awakening his resentment, laid me open to further victimization. I do not know. The plausible theory is sound or it is unsound. If it is sound, then the astonishing thing is that I have passed unbitten by every dog that I have since met. If it is unsound, then my brace of bites remain among life's inexplicable coincidences."
To be continued in the series of instalments on this web site entitled Boreham on Coincidence.
Source: F W Boreham, ‘The Long Arm of Coincidence’, I Forgot to Say (London: The Epworth Press, 1939), 87-96.
Image: Ferocious canine.
