DR. WALLACE: We have a dog who’s pretty friendly most of the time. We keep him in our fenced yard and we have a sign clearly posted that says we have a dog.
Our yard is along a street that is also a walkway to a 7-Eleven, so a lot of people walk by our yard every single day.
A week ago, someone knocked on our door and told my dad that our dog had bit his 12-year-old son and that if we didn’t pay for the medical bills, he was going to sue us. He said that his son put his fingers through the fence and poked our dog on the nose and our dog immediately bit his finger and made it bleed. Can someone just sue you if they happen to get bit by your dog, even if they provoke the animal? — Dog owner, via email
DOG OWNER: Unfortunately, a dog biting a child is common, and laws in each city and state are different when it comes to these matters.
To start, I suggest you have your father check it out online and see what specific rules apply to your city. Once your father knows the laws and regulations in your area, he can hopefully negotiate a reasonable outcome with the father of the boy who was bitten. It’s always best to avoid court and legal actions unless absolutely necessary. It may be possible for your father and this man to each take some responsibility and come to a civilized compromise.
I trust this boy will be much more hesitant to poke dogs he does not know on the nose in the future.
WAS MY DOLL THROWN AWAY?
DR. WALLACE: My mom is sometimes very nice but she can be mean and cruel at other times. So, I’m now thinking about running away from home. Why? Well, since I disobeyed my mom’s request to clean my room last weekend, she took my favorite doll and threw it in the trash when I wasn’t looking — or at least that’s what she told me.
Once I calmed down, I politely asked her to get it out of the trash but she said, “No, that’s what you get for not cleaning your room. If your room was clean, I’m sure you could easily find it.”
When she went grocery shopping yesterday, I went through all the trash cans in our house and in our backyard and I could not find my doll anywhere. I don’t know what she did with it. Is this normal punishment, or can I call child protective services to report her for child abuse? My mom obviously has kidnapped my doll and is holding her ransom until my room is clean. — Owner of a kidnapped doll, via email
OWNER OF A KIDNAPPED DOLL: If your mother told you in advance that she was going to throw away your favorite doll if you didn’t clean your room, would you have cleaned your room to avoid losing your doll? This seems to be the situation here.
My guess is that your mother has stored your doll away somewhere you can’t get to it but that she has not thrown it away. My worry here is that both of you are demonstrating troubling immaturity.
On your mother’s end, telling you that your doll has been thrown away specifically because you did not clean your room last weekend is both immature and a bad example of parenting. She could have warned you in advance of the consequences of not cleaning your room over a weekend by grounding you for a period of time or taking away an item (like your favorite doll) for the period of time your room remained uncleaned. This would notify you in advance and give you a chance to realize the consequences of your actions.
You, on the other hand, immediately consider running away from home and/or calling child protective services because your doll is missing due to your room remaining uncleaned. These are immature and unrealistic ideas.
I suggest that each of you interact with each other in a more mature and reasonable manner. Communicate calmly with your mother and give her a big hug, even if you don’t see your doll for a while. I trust that, in time, she will reappear.
Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected] To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
