I'm out for a walk on a paved neighborhood road.  Several hundred feet ahead of me, something is in the street.   It looks to be fresh cut lumber on the road.  As I continue walking towards it, the lumber moves and I realize its some kind of four legged animal.  The animal turns and faces me.  The animal is tawny in color.  What animal is four legged and tawny colorer?  A mountain lion?  A bobcat?  The animal begins to run towards me, I turn and run like I'm going to be eaten alive.  I few seconds later I turn to see if the animal is still chasing me.... it is.  Fortunately, I spot a van approaching the animal from behind.  As the van reaches the animal I'm now able to accurately measure the size of the animal against a familiar sized thing - the van.  I realize the animal hardly reaches halfway up the tire and rim.  What I thought might have been a mountain lion was actually a tan colored Pomerainian dog.  What a fool!