I don't know what I'm looking for in this, I think I just need to vent and feel like this is a safe place to do it since this is the most level headed corner of the internet.
I have two dogs, Charlie who is about 14 pounds and Finn who is about 20. My neighbors have 5 dogs (was 6 until one died a month or two ago) ranging in size from about 15 pounds to a 120 pound plus Mastiff mix.
Yesterday morning my wife went outside for a smoke and took the dogs out as she always does. While they were out, Charlie stuck his paw through a hole under the fence that runs between my yard and the neighbors.
In the past, when he was smaller, he would slide under the fence into their yard, nothing ever came of it. Their dogs and he never had issues.
Yesterday, something was different. My wife heard our dog Finn running up and down the fence line barking at their Mastiff mix, the Mastiff mix doing the same. Then the Mastiff stopped barking, and our smaller dog, Charlie, started screaming. The Mastiff mix had grabbed a hold of his paw. My wife got to him and had to pull him away from the fence to get their dog to let go.
She came inside in a panic crying, I was completely confused at first. Then I saw his paw dangling from his leg. Come to find out, it was attached by skin and two tendons. We found a vet that was on call nearby (the regular vet that we take them to is over 40 miles away) and met him at his office. The bones in his paw were crushed in multiple places, two of the four tendons leading to his toes were completely severed, the skin on his leg had peeled back in places.
We were given the option of amputating his entire leg, having the vet try to clean it and bandage it hoping for it to heel, but warned that this could still lead to him losing it, or to have the vet stabilize it and take him to a specialist. The vet indicated that amputating the leg would lead to him being healed in the least amount of time. He also said its what he would do if it were his dog in the situation. So, given that, we chose to have his leg amputated.
After Charlie was with the vet and being operated on, my wife called the non-emergency sheriff's dispatch for our county, which serves as the point of contact for Animal Control. Animal Control doesn't work on the weekends, so after our dog was out of surgery, we met a sheriff's deputy at our house (ironically a K-9 officer). He took our account of what had happened but since my wife didn't get visual confirmation that it was their mastiff mix that bit our dog (they also have a German Shepard mix), he wasn't sure what, if anything, could be done. He then went and talked to the neighbor.
A couple hours later, the neighbor came over to apologize for what had happened. She feels horrible about it, to the point of crying when talking to the deputy as well as when she came over. She offered to pay for the veterinary bills, however, her husband is a disabled Vietnam veteran and she takes care of him, so I'm very hesitant to take any money from her. She returned today to ask if our dog had come home yet and brought a can of dog bones over for them.
I really do appreciate her gesture and feel that she is genuinely sorry for what happened, but at this point my wife and I agree that talking to her is very awkward and we don't really want to do it right now. We're both still very upset about what happened. We've been irritated by her large number of dogs for most of the time that we've lived in our house (a little over two years) and to have it result in a situation where one of our dogs loses his leg absolutely infuriates us!
The past two days have been a roller coaster of emotions for both of us, going from thinking of all the things we could have done to prevent this from happening, to realizing that this isn't our fault, to being angry and wanting their dogs gone, to trying to look ahead and do what we need to do to keep our dog comfortable and on the path to getting better.
We both realize that things could have ended much worse had our dog gotten his head through to their side of the fence, but we can't help but wonder what this will do to his personality.
This may be the most rambling thing I've ever written. If you've made it this far, I thank you.
I have two dogs, Charlie who is about 14 pounds and Finn who is about 20. My neighbors have 5 dogs (was 6 until one died a month or two ago) ranging in size from about 15 pounds to a 120 pound plus Mastiff mix.
Yesterday morning my wife went outside for a smoke and took the dogs out as she always does. While they were out, Charlie stuck his paw through a hole under the fence that runs between my yard and the neighbors.
In the past, when he was smaller, he would slide under the fence into their yard, nothing ever came of it. Their dogs and he never had issues.
Yesterday, something was different. My wife heard our dog Finn running up and down the fence line barking at their Mastiff mix, the Mastiff mix doing the same. Then the Mastiff stopped barking, and our smaller dog, Charlie, started screaming. The Mastiff mix had grabbed a hold of his paw. My wife got to him and had to pull him away from the fence to get their dog to let go.
She came inside in a panic crying, I was completely confused at first. Then I saw his paw dangling from his leg. Come to find out, it was attached by skin and two tendons. We found a vet that was on call nearby (the regular vet that we take them to is over 40 miles away) and met him at his office. The bones in his paw were crushed in multiple places, two of the four tendons leading to his toes were completely severed, the skin on his leg had peeled back in places.
We were given the option of amputating his entire leg, having the vet try to clean it and bandage it hoping for it to heel, but warned that this could still lead to him losing it, or to have the vet stabilize it and take him to a specialist. The vet indicated that amputating the leg would lead to him being healed in the least amount of time. He also said its what he would do if it were his dog in the situation. So, given that, we chose to have his leg amputated.
After Charlie was with the vet and being operated on, my wife called the non-emergency sheriff's dispatch for our county, which serves as the point of contact for Animal Control. Animal Control doesn't work on the weekends, so after our dog was out of surgery, we met a sheriff's deputy at our house (ironically a K-9 officer). He took our account of what had happened but since my wife didn't get visual confirmation that it was their mastiff mix that bit our dog (they also have a German Shepard mix), he wasn't sure what, if anything, could be done. He then went and talked to the neighbor.
A couple hours later, the neighbor came over to apologize for what had happened. She feels horrible about it, to the point of crying when talking to the deputy as well as when she came over. She offered to pay for the veterinary bills, however, her husband is a disabled Vietnam veteran and she takes care of him, so I'm very hesitant to take any money from her. She returned today to ask if our dog had come home yet and brought a can of dog bones over for them.
I really do appreciate her gesture and feel that she is genuinely sorry for what happened, but at this point my wife and I agree that talking to her is very awkward and we don't really want to do it right now. We're both still very upset about what happened. We've been irritated by her large number of dogs for most of the time that we've lived in our house (a little over two years) and to have it result in a situation where one of our dogs loses his leg absolutely infuriates us!
The past two days have been a roller coaster of emotions for both of us, going from thinking of all the things we could have done to prevent this from happening, to realizing that this isn't our fault, to being angry and wanting their dogs gone, to trying to look ahead and do what we need to do to keep our dog comfortable and on the path to getting better.
We both realize that things could have ended much worse had our dog gotten his head through to their side of the fence, but we can't help but wonder what this will do to his personality.
This may be the most rambling thing I've ever written. If you've made it this far, I thank you.
That's one I haven't heard, I like it!
