Immediately after I got over the extreme fear, I felt extreme anger. When I told my husband, he got on my case for wallking without packing -- although even a pistol probably wouldn't have saved me because these dogs were mere feet away. From now on I will take a friend's advice and carry a water pistol filled with straight ammonia and have it in hand. I don't like to pack a pistol under such circumstances not because it's illegal here in in California without an impossible-to-get carry license, but because you can't have it at-the-ready without being conspicuously illegal, and also because I sometimes tresspass on city property high in the hills; on the off-chance that I got nabbed by some bureaucrat, I'd like NOT to get slammed with a weapons charge! I figure a face full of pure ammonia will stop a bad human as well as a bad dog.