I remember about 20 years ago... I was in the front yard with my 2 dogs. The mailman was coming up the driveway, saw them and announced that if they came near him, he would mace them. He had his canister in hand ready to go. He was dead serious. The dogs, by the way, were a 9 week old cocker spaniel and an 8 week old shih tzu. They were ferocious, scary beasts.
I’d have questioned this mailman’s manhood, sexuality, and testosterone levels.
QUITE publicly and loudly. In front of the entire neighborhood, where my nebby neighbors would have seen and heard everything said about this gelded milquetoast.