The other day while seeking a place to detect, I found trouble. So here is the story of stories. Friday I had a whole day to spend metal detecting at my liesure because my wife and kids were out of state. Rare. I usually try to head downtown to the sketchy parts of town to detect because few if any detect there due to danger and crime. When I go there, I pack my 9mm concealed with my license in my wallet, just in case. This time I decided to put a round in the chamber (which I don't usually do) with the safety on. I had a large, boarded up house in mind, only a couple of blocks from the police station. It is abandoned, yet when I drove by, I noticed 2 cars in the back yard near the backyard in-law suite. I parked my car on John Street, across the street and down aways from the house, got out and walked the dirt drive on the side of the house which led to the backyard suite where the cars were parked. A pit bull/bulldog was tied up to a frayed rope and chain staked in the ground and a 12-13 year old African American girl was standing at the car. I introduced my self from about 20 feet away and asked of they owned the home. She said yes and I asked if her dad was there so I could ask him a question (permission to detect the side yard). The dog is barking madly, pulling on the rope/chain, clearly salivating on the ground. She went in to get him. There I am standing alone, looking that dog in the eye from 20 feet away, going crazy. The dog had a body harness on. I am waiting and waiting for the fella to come out. Five minutes or so goes by and I am looking at that dog and watching the frayed rope closely, thinking that I am in a world of hurt if that breaks, because that dog wants some meat bad. Suddenly, the chest part of the harness breaks and I see the dog whip his head around, looking at the abdomen part of the harness, with freedom in sight. I said oh crap, the harness broke, turned around and ran to the front of the house and reached the sidewalk. As I turned around, I see the dog running at me full bore! I pulled my 9mm out and took a stance with the weapon pointed at it's chest, prepared to fire. The dog suddenly stopped about 2 feet from me and growled. I had that gun right in his face and yelled, "Back, back! Sir, sir!", calling for the owner who never showed. The girl was nowhere in sight either. We had a standoff for about 1 minute. Then the dog slowly turned and started walking away and I backed off to a position across the street at the sidewalk. The dog charged me again, full blast and we ended up in the same position, gun to nose, at the edge of the street. Cars were passing by and I am thinking this is crazy. The girl showed on the dirt drive across the street and screamed, "Don't shoot my dog, don't kill my dog!". I told her that if he tries to bite me I will have to shoot and to get her dad and call your dog! Her dad finally comes running from behind the house yelling at the dog with a large rope in his hand. Here I am, gun pointed at the dog's face only 1-2 feet away. As soon as he ran into the street, the dog ran into and down the street, traffic stopping both directions. He finally caught the dog and got the rope around his neck. He said he will be right back as he took the dog to the rear of the house. He then showed up, put 2 chairs out on the front porch and we talked. He apologized and said thank you for not shooting his dog. I stated that he is a great dog for protection, and we talked about 20 minutes. Nice conversation, as my legs finally stopped shaking. He said, "What question were you going to ask?". I said I was going to ask permission to metal detect his side yard, but now I really wasn't in the mood! Just another day of detecting, one that I will not soon for forget.