[Rain Man]

Okay, this happened tonight.

I'm walking home, headed south and approaching a street corner, maybe 100 feet away.

Walking west is an old woman with a little tiny dog on a leash. This is probably an 8-pound dog, one of those little terriers. She's in the intersection going from the southeast corner to the southwest corner.

Walking east toward the southwest corner, and about half a block away, is some tall 20-something dude.

I'm minding my own business and I suddenly hear screaming. Loud screaming. Panicked screaming. I can't tell where it's coming from.

The old woman is now on the southwest corner of the intersection and has stopped. The 20-something guy is the one who was screaming and pointing at the dog, and he's saying something about the dog, but I can't understand it. He's now maybe 30 feet away from her, and he's stopped.

I figured that maybe he knew the woman, and he was making the dog feel good by pretending it was a wolf or something, so I paid him no mind.

I get into the intersection, close enough to hear what's going on. The old woman is on the corner, the dog is about ten feet out on the leash wanting to go toward the guy, but can't since he only weighs 8 pounds. The guy is about 10 feet from the dog, and he's telling the woman to go south, not east. I have no idea what's going on. Then the guy says, "I have a serious phobia about dogs! You have to go that direction!"

Apparently so.