A Public Service Announcement
February 24, 2011I’m a little slow on this news, since it’s a week old now, but it’s important so I wanted to make sure it gets up here.
I’m hoping that someone may benefit from my stupidity…
Last Tuesday morning, we were getting ready to take 4 new adoptables in for their spay/neuters. In the main house were our 6 personal greyhounds plus one adoptable (Dudley). I had on my “dog clothes” so Tigger and Eyore assumed that they were being taken somewhere, and started bouncing around. Then, leashes came out, and everyone started bouncing around. We gated them away from the door, and began bringing adoptables from the kennel into the garage to load into the van.
There was about 30 seconds during which both Lloyd and I were out in the garage, putting the 2 new brothers into the van. During that 30 seconds, *something* happened in the house which caused 6 of the “house” dogs to all attack my 6-yr-old boy Brad. I imagine that Brad may even have started it. But he sure didn’t finish it.
Literally 30 seconds. And the damage was extensive. The vet said she stopped counting at 12 laceration repairs. 2 into the muscle. 2 drains placed. About a 4″x4″ flap of skin hanging on one side that is necrosing and will need resuturing later. 3 of his teeth yanked sideways (presumably on another dog’s collar) and needing extraction. Thankfully, jaw bone not broken.
Every time I do an adoption into a multi-dog home, I warn people to USE THEIR MUZZLES when their dogs are unsupervised. All the time I hear, “But I’m only going to be gone for a minute.” A minute is a long time. This is what can happen in a minute. And these are dogs that live together peacefully every day and have for years.
Brad is going to be okay, but he has a long recovery ahead. And it’s our own damn fault. Everyday life — rushing around to get the dogs off to the vet and the kids off to school and ourselves dressed and ready. Taking a minute to put muzzles on the 7 dogs would have prevented Brad’s injury (and $1200 of vet bills, for what that’s worth).
So. Use your muzzles.
End of lecture.
[Everyone else is fine. Chester has one staple on top of his head (that I placed) and a tear in his ear. He has no teeth, so he really should have thought better of getting involved. Eyore has a tear in his ear and some punctures along his snout, also fixable by me. Everyone else is fine, surprisingly enough, since all were involved.]
