Don't give it a moments thought Anton. The fact that she upset you reflects on your regard for nature, and her uninformed disregard for the role fishing and fisherman play in environmental appreciation and care.
I got a good dog story though.
Few years back I finished work early afternoon, bought 12 quids worth of lug from the tackle shop, and hot footed and hiked it onto Holme beach. Tide was on the push so set up about 80 metres from the sea line, baited up a rod to hand, popped my now unwrapped lug on top of my box, wandered down and thought I'd fish a cast to hand back up to my kit as the tide bowled in as it does on Holme. I literally cast in, looked back, and spotted a black labrador legging it towards my box. Rod, distance, reeling in... I had no chance. The thing hit my box and chowed down on 98 lugworms and 3 sheets of the Daily Mirror in about 15 seconds. Canine dustbins. By the time I made it to my box it was looking at me with big doey eyes, wagging its tail, and was clearly asking for more... quite naturally. Several hundred yards up the beach I could see its owner, an ancient Norfolk duchess in a long wax coat and overpriced wellies, scuttling towards us and yelling quite fruity language. Myself and the labrador waited patiently. On her arrival she launched into a tirade accusing me of poisoning her dog, lodging hooks in its stomach, allergies, vets bills, stomach pumping... and demanded my name and address. (By now the dog was too embarrassed to make eye contact with me). I told her I would gladly give her my details whilst calmly explaining to her that I no longer had any bait at all, and that the evenings fishing that I was looking forward to with my 12 pounds worth of lug was now completely over so we had plenty of time to hike back to my car where I had a pen she could borrow. After some sweary huffing she scuttled off. The labrador lingered for a wee while and cocked its head... I like to think it was apologising, but I suspect it thought I had some more salty morsels in my box.
There is a moral to this story... the old duchess was rude, unreasonable, and actually quite offensive. The dog was just being a dog, was well mannered, clearly pleased to meet me, and appreciative. Ironic.
