Initiation into the unwanted club

It was a lovely morning, I was wearing my new scarf and thinking about how funny it was that it was snowing in the middle of March! A couple of weeks ago it had actually gotten pretty warm for a few days but the past week has been pretty cold and rainy, and this morning I woke up to snow. It didn't stick to much of anything but it came down steadily all day!! 

Anyway, I was having a happy morning walking to school until I had to cross through a park between two apartment buildings across the street from the school. I noticed there were 3 or 4 dogs in the park but the only way to no go by them was to go through a parking lot and walk very close to another dog, I chose to keep my track but pulled out my keys to jingle at them and held my pepper spray, just in case. I was half way out of the park when the big dog from the parking lot came up and started barking at me from behind. I yelled at him and kept walking quickly. Normally yelling at the dogs works and they get scared and go away, but not today. The big dog kept coming at me barking and the other dogs from the park came over too. I started screaming and pushed my open umbrella at him (which did nothing) then began spraying him with my pepper spray all the while screaming at the top of my lungs. Looking back I had no idea my voice could be that loud or high, I must have gone at least 5 octaves higher than usual. 

I was so scared I'm not sure what I would have done next. But God is good and a little Turkish grandpa must have heard me from one of the nearby buildings and came out and ran at them, this made them retreat a few steps and I walked at quickly as I could to the nearest building to wait for him and thank him. He tried to tell me something but in my current state of adrenaline and nerves I couldn't really understand him, I think he was asking where I was headed so I told him, pointing to the school across the street. I walked quickly to the school and went, shaking, into my classroom and to my desk. As soon as I sad down I bust into tears and thanked God for his protection and for sending the man to help me. 

This afternoon I ended up going to the mall and so didn't come home until almost 9 pm. When I got out of the taxi there was a large black/brown dog outside the gate to my apartment. I'm sure it's just my imagination but I feel like the big dog from this morning might be mad about the pepper spray and is now trying to take revenge on me, I almost ran into my building.  It's going to take a lot of prayers to get me all the way to school in the morning. 

Many people in this neighborhood have trouble with the wild dogs and many people have a their own 'dog story', some including bites and a lot more dogs than just 5 or 6. I know that I have so much to be thankful for, and I am, but I'm also struggling with being scared to walk around alone. I don't want to live in fear but I am afraid. Unfortunately I left my club at school (since I was going to the mall) so I'm looking around the house for other possible weapons for tomorrow morning walk and trying to think of the best and most populated route to school.