November 18, 2007

Dog Attack!!!

Last night we noticed that our neighbor had two big English Bulldogs in their back yard (the dogs were white with black spots - Roxanne said referred to them as "small cows"). What we noticed most about the dogs is that they liked to stand leaning up against the split rail fence that separates our neighbor's yard from ours.

This morning we saw that one of the fence posts was already leaning about 10" into our yard (the post was vertical yesterday) so we let our neighbor know that their dogs were tearing up the fence (while we were talking to him we watched one of the dogs peal the chicken wire away from the fence). On the way back to our house, I commented that we would need to use a leash when we took Sabres out to "go potty" - she'd fit right through the gaping 2 foot whole that just got ripped up.

Our neighbor put the dogs into a penned-in area of his backyard and then took their kids out to breakfast. Less than 15 minutes later, the dogs were wandering their backyard again... they had easily escaped from the pen.

A bit later... while I was raking leaves in the front yard, I heard a lot of yelping and barking when I turn and see these two "small cows" in our back yard wrestling. A half second later I see Roxanne squeak out from underneath them and I realize what was going on - the dogs broke down the fence and attacked!

I ran to the backyard, leaping over the split rail fence in full stride, when I realized that it wasn't Roxanne that they are attacking, rather it was Sabres. Roxanne told me that when she heard the fence break and saw the dogs leaping over it, she picked Sabres up in her arms but the dogs jumped on her knocking both of them to the ground. She tried to roll on top of Sabres to protect her, but one dog was digging at her from one side while the other was dragging her across the yard by her pants. Despite her efforts at protecting Sabres, they were getting to her anyway and they were also pouncing on Roxanne so she let Sabres go hoping Sabres could run away. However, Sabres was already too injured to run.

As Roxanne rolled clear of the meelee, I dove into the pile of dogs, tackling the mini-cow that had Sabres' head in its mouth. The other mini-cow was getting ready to chomp down when I jumped on top of Sabres like she was a loose football.

With slobber dripping off of Sabres and her eyes wide open staring at me I could see she was in shock, laying completely motionless in my arms, I checked on Roxanne and made sure she wasn't bleeding. Knowing Sabres needed to go to the vet (she had blood on her right arm and cried whenever she was moved) I took Sabres to the car and set her in her car seat and went inside to settle Roxanne.

Long story short... I took Sabres to the vet while Roxanne was on the phone with 911. We ended up with 2 police cars, 1 fire truck, 1 ambulance, and 1 animal control officer out at the house. The EMTs insisted that Roxanne go to the ER because her blood pressue and heart rate were both wicked high and they needed to test for internal damage and make sure our baby was OK. Sabres escaped with only a 1/2" puncture to her right shoulder and lots of subcutaneous air pockets and bruising around her ribs. Roxanne's tests came back all "A-OK" (fetal heartrate ~160 and was very active on the ultrasound - kicking its legs around like a frog).

When we finally got home our neighbors were waiting for us. Animal control had already spoken with them and he gave me the dogs' owner's phone number. The owner was very polite and apologetic and said he would take care of the bills, so hopefully we won't have to take anyone to small claims court.

Most of all, I am thankful that Roxanne and our baby are OK.

Here's a picture of Sabres with the collar she has to wear to keep her from chewing and scratching her wounds: