Girl Fight

To those of you who have expressed your support in regards to my last post, thank you. I am taking steps to finally finding my way through this, and really, just being open about it makes everything seem a little better.

Now, on to other things. I realize that I have posted virtually NOTHING about our trip, but I promise to do so once I get the photos organized. I also need to give myself an opportunity to wrap my head around all that we experienced while we were away because since we’ve been back, things have been busy. Part of me feels as if we never even went on vacation.

What I want to talk about today are my dogs. My gloriously sweet and funny dogs – both of whom have been attacked by other dogs within the past two weeks.

Case #1

The Professor and I decided to take Charlie and the girls, Maggie and Roxy to the dog park way out at Shelby Farms. This park is awesome, especially for a dog. The park, directly south of the horse riding area is a mostly fenced off span of park where dogs can roam and roam and sniff and swim and roll in leash-less freedom. There are trails, ponds, lakes, and of course other dogs! On days when we have the time and the weather is agreeable, we take the dogs to Dog Park and join multitudes of other dog owners and their beasts and just sit back and watch the dogs dive in and out of the pond chasing after sticks, balls, and each other. They have so much fun that the dogs are usually worn out in about 15 minutes. And my favorite part is that there is almost always some new dog owner wanting to show off his/her cute new sweet smelling puppy.

So, two weekends ago, we loaded up the car (sans leashes) and made our way toward the park. We strapped Charlie in the Baby Bjorn and let the dogs run loose down the trails toward the water. Maggie and Roxy had a very satisfying time sniffing trees, running, and pushing each other into the shoreline of the pond. We played with the other dogs, Roxy chasing sticks and swimming, Maggie barking at other dogs.

We finally decided to make our way back toward the car, taking the long way so the girls could run a little more and eventually dry off. While walking away from the pond, and seriously, we were only about 10 feet from it, Roxy flopped over on her back in the tall green grass to give herself a little back scratch, which is her custom. Immediately, I looked toward the pond in search of Maggie and instead found another dog running full speed toward Roxy. I thought he was playing, but no.

This dog, smaller than Roxy, dove on top of her and put his filthy, nasty teeth around her neck. I screamed and the Professor jumped over to try to remove this horrible canine from our harmless dog. After several attempts, the Professor got the other dog away, and its owner came running over with a baffled expression on her face. Once the heat of the moment was over, I realized that Charlie was screaming having witnessed the whole thing. Fortunately, he was strapped to me in the Bjorn, and I was able to quickly console him.

Roxy was fine, just a bit shaken up. Fortunately, she has gawky long legs with which she was able to push the other dog away. The attack dog’s owner was very apologetic; she said that she had never witnessed anything like that before. I’ll chalk it up to a misunderstanding between the dogs. A bit of playfulness gone bad, I suppose. It really did scare me, though, and our already skittish Roxy will not be better for it.

Case #2
We have a friend who lives in our neighborhood who has a dog that is Roxy’s almost identical twin. From time to time we trade dog sitting duties since we live so close to each other and our dogs typically like hanging out with each other. Roxy and her almost twin (I will refer to her as Ms. K going forward) especially like spending time together. Maggie? Not so much. When we go out of town, we usually take Roxy to the neighbor’s house and Maggie to an in-law’s house. Two additional dogs might be a little much for our neighbor and in her old age Maggie doesn’t really enjoy hanging with the younger beasts.

So, this week, we are watching Ms. K. Our neighbor is off in Maine for a week and half of glorious vacation (jealous!). Ms. K usually has a few bumpy days when she comes to our house. She is accustomed to much more attention, pampering, and treats than we parse out in our abode. She likes to sleep with her owner in her bed (eeww!); at our house, it’s the hardwoods, baby! When it storms, her owner cuddles with her and whispers that she will be alright; at our house, her only comfort is to hide in the bathroom. At her own home, her food is left out all day so she can nip and pick at it as she desires throughout the day; at our house, if you don’t eat during the 30 minute allotted dog eating time, you don’t eat .Our dogs ALWAYS gobble up their food in 5 minutes or less, and if Ms. K has not completed her food in that time, our beasts will attempt to snark her food away.

This brings me to Case #2. Last Sunday, we fed the dogs their usual dinner at around 5:00 p.m. Each dog has her own bowl and her own eating area. Maggie and Roxy routinely run back and forth between each other’s bowls to make sure the other did not get something special that she did not. With Ms. K, they usually sniff around her bowl in hopes that she will back away and share her food. Her food is something special because Ms. K is on a doggy diet and eats diet CANNED food at every meal (this totally pisses our dogs off who drool for canned food).

On Sunday, Maggie did her usual and went to Ms. K’s bowl for a little sniff in hopes of a nibble. Ms. K gave Maggie a warning growl. She was not up for Maggie’s antics. I looked over at the two girls and told Maggie to move away, and at that exact moment, when Maggie was not moving away, Ms. K turned on her. The following series of events (which lasted for all of 10 seconds) totally freaked me out.

Ms. K, who is bigger than Maggie, turned around and knocked Maggie on her back in one swoop. She proceeded to clamp her teeth (her teeth!) around Maggie’s neck. Maggie rolled over in an attempt to escape, but Ms. K put all of her weight on top of her and then put her teeth into the back of Maggie’s neck and then around her ear, threatening to bite it off. All of that weight of Ms. K (excuse me - the fat beast) was on top of our frail little Maggie who would not hurt a fly. They were growling, slobbering, and flailing; Roxy was barking and skulking away. Meanwhile, the Professor tried to get Ms. K off of Maggie. He had difficulty, but once Maggie rolled over onto her stomach, he was able to pull Ms. K off after a few attempts.

Did I mention that this whole situation freaked me out? Maggie is old and has arthritis in her back legs, so she couldn’t put much effort into defending herself. It was almost like watching some wild animal dive in and kill a helpless baby seal. It was awful. Charlie, poor thing, was screaming (thankfully he was safely in his high chair when this happened), I was shaking, the Professor was worried, and poor Maggie was limping, quivering and shaken up.

We immediately took Ms. K outside, assessed Maggie (who is fine) and tried to figure out what to do next. We decided to leave Ms. K outside for a while and give Maggie some time to recuperate. Our neighbor would not be back for another week, and we were worried about these two sharing the same house for the duration of her vacation. After we all calmed down, we agreed that debacle was strictly about food and power. Ms. K usually does not assert herself at all while at our house, so I guess she was just really hungry and tired of having to defend her meal. We eventually got Maggie and Ms. K together again. There was no growling, biting, or attacking, and Roxy served as a good mediator.

Since the incident, the girls have been well behaved. Ms. K gets fed outside on the porch, and Maggie pretty much avoids her altogether. Maggie has never endured a situation like that in all of her 12+ English Setter years. I think she may have seen her life flash before her eyes, she was so shaken up. The incident also showed me just how old and fragile Maggie is becoming. She is still vibrant and spunky, but her spunk can only keep up with her for about 5 minutes.

It makes me sad to think that we will probably lose her in the near future. I love that dog. I met her on a day shortly after I met the Professor. He had only brought her home a few months before I met him and I remember stepping into his house and being greeted by this very cute but very obnoxious puppy. Did I mention that I love her? I love everything from her jackrabbit run, to her sloppy jowls, to her floppy ears, to the cuddly soft fur, to her super-sweet disposition.