Dog Attack! 05/01/07

Tuesday night something terrible happened. I was out in the backyard with my dog Popper when she was attacked by our upstairs neighbor's pit bull (we live in a duplex). Luckily it looks like she's going to be ok, but just barely. I feel particularly terrible because this whole thing is it could have been prevented, but wasn't.

September 16th, 2006

You see, this wasn't the first time our dog has been attacked. Seven and a half months ago, on September 16th, 2006, Christina and I were putting on nice clothes, getting ready to check out a potential wedding location with her sister Patience, and we asked her to let the dog out while we finished getting ready. She opened the door and Popper ran out. Our neighbor was out there with his dog, and it immediately ran for Popper and attacked. Christina and I were inside, but I heard Popper make a sound. It wasn't a yelp, it sounded more like a scream, so I ran outside as fast as I could, grabbed Popper out of the jaws of the other dog, and brought her inside without saying a word.

"You're ok, Popper, you're ok," I kept reassuring her, then I looked down at my nice shirt and saw a spot of blood forming where I held her. I couldn't take it. I started crying and screaming.

Christina and Patience knew that this wasn't good for Popper to see, so she sent me in to call the guy from the wedding location and let him know that we wouldn't be showing up. It calmed me down enough for me to drive my dog to the vet minutes later. As we drove to the vet, Popper seemed less worried about her own wounds, and more about our feelings.

When we got to the vet, they rushed Popper in and put her to sleep while they treated her wounds. The doctor warned us that with dog bites you can sometimes never tell how bad things are until things start healing. Oftentimes, the skin beneath the bite is destroyed by the force, and things can get messy, taking a long time to heal.

When we picked her up a few hours later she was ok. She had gotten a few staples, was still in a lot of pain and would be bleeding for a few weeks at least, but nothing seemed terrible.

The next day Christina and I knocked on the neighbor's door, handed them our surprisingly modest vet bill (thanks to Pet Insurance), and asked them to keep a muzzle on their dog. They said that their dog didn't deal well with muzzles, but that they would always be out with her, and try to keep a leash on her. They also mentioned that it might take a while to pay us back because they had both recently lost their jobs, and we told them to take all of the time they needed, but to make sure it never happened again. To this day, we have never recieved a dime.

Here are some pictures of the 09/16/2006 Attack:

Late Last Year

Late last year our dog was attacked again. Luckily, nobody got hurt, but the event did happen, and it reinforced the idea that we probably should have done something more the first time.

The weekend that Popper was attacked again we were watching my sister's golden doodle (golden retriever, poodle mix), Shailey. Christina was in the kitchen making dinner and I was on the front porch talking to one of our neighbors. A knock came on our back door, which caused the dogs to start going nuts. With all of the noise inside, I began saying goodbye to the neighbor, as Christina peeked out of the back door to see who it was. Our neighbor Liz was out there, so she opened up the door, leaving the screen door shut, to find out what she wanted. Liz asked to borrow our pooper scooper, which we keep on our back porch. Christina said ok, then Liz said, "Oh yeah, Kimba's here" (their dog). When Kimba got in the view of Popper and Shailey, the dogs started going crazy again, and pushed the screen door open. As this happened I walked into the room, noticed what was going on, and as Kimba leaped into the room at the dogs, I grabbed her by the neck and pushed her out of our kitchen, slamming both doors behind her.

Christina and I started asking each other "what the hell just happened?" because the whole thing seemed so surreal and unlikely.

The entire rest of the weekend Christina and I would periodically look at each other and say, "did that really happen?" But it did, and a few days later we spoke with Mark about it. I made it clear that under no circumstanced could something like this happen again. He said that they would keep their dog on a leash from then on so that nothing will happen. To this day I have never seen the dog on a leash.

Which brings us to this week.

May 1st, 2007

Tuesday night I stepped out on the back porch in my socks, playing a game on my Nintendo DS while my dog did her thing. We were out there for maybe 5 minutes and by this point my dog was standing in the small garden on the right-hand side of the yard eating grass and sniffing flowers when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw their dog come rushing across the yard for mine.

I screamed "No, no, no!" repeatedly, and came rushing to help. I punched their dog in the side, then grabbed her two back feet and tried to pull her off of my dog. She pulled Popper with her, out of the garden, and however far I pulled her. What I did next is a blur, but I remember reaching in, putting my hands near their faces, and trying to pry the Pit Bull's mouth open. My hand began stinging badly, and when it came into my vision, I couldn't see it under the pools of blood. I'm not sure when it happened, but shortly, both the dog's owner Liz, and Christina had both made it into the yard. At this point, I got down on top of the Pit Bull and held onto it tightly, then yelled for someone to pull Popper away. I'm not sure how it happened, but moments later, Popper was a foot away from the Pit Bull and in Christina's arms and I was holding onto the Pit as hard as I could.

"Take her inside!" I yelled.

"I don't want to move her!" Christina said.

"Do it! I'm not going to let go of this dog!" I said. And Christina picked up Popper and rushed inside.

"I need to go to the emergency room," our neighbor said as she held her bloody hands together.

"Take your ****ing dog!" I said. When I saw that Popper was safely inside, I let go of their dog and she took it inside.

I came into the kitchen and sat next to Popper, holding my hand downwards as the blood dripped off and puddled on the floor. Popper didn't seem that bad, honestly. She didn't seem to be bleeding as much as she had the time before, and she seemed more concerned about the way Christina and I were acting than with her own injuries.

Christina hopped on the phone to call someone who could call the vet for us while someone took me to the emergency room. My hand looked really bad, but I was more concerned that Popper would get taken care of quickly. while she called, I got up and went into the bathroom to wash off the blood. Bloody skin started coming off of my hand into the sink, and even though that sounds horribly disgusting, when I was finished washing up I really didn't look too bad. I was still bleeding from all of the cuts though, so I grabbed an old hand towel and wrapped my hand in it.

Christina couldn't get ahold of her sister, so she made arrangements for my mom to come and take Popper to the vet while we went to the emergency room.

We locked Popper up in the kitchen, I put my shoes on over my muddy socks, and Christina and I headed out of the front door. I realized that I didn't have my cell phone with me, so I turned around and went back to the yard to pick it up. While I was back there I noticed a bright light coming from under the bricks that make up the division between the yard and the garden. In the horror of the moment I had thrown my DS down and it had smashed into the bricks of the garden, somehow ending up under them. I wiped it off a bit, then found my cell phone nearby and put both into my pockets.

The garden after the attack

When I came back to the front Liz and Christina were talking. I asked if she needed a ride to the emergency room and she said her mom was on the way to pick her up, so we hopped in the car and started down the street. Christina mentioned that Liz had told her that noticed us out there, but before she could turn around and go back the dog pushed the screen door open and come after Popper. At this point it didn't matter to me who was at fault, but something like this was not going to happen again, and I would do everything I can to make sure of it.

Then it hit me that both Christina and I have cars, and she could be taking Popper to the emergency room while I took myself. I couldn't drive my car since it's a manual and I was handless, but I could drive hers. We turned around and went home, then I hopped into the drivers seat and sped off.

Long story short, I was in the emergency room from 11:30 until 6:30 AM. By 1:30, Popper had been in and out of the Animal Hospital, Christina had come to be with me, and I still hadn't even had my hand wrapped in gauze yet.

Christina and I both stayed home from work the next day. Me for my injuries and Christina to stay with Popper. Popper's butt had been leaking fluids all night and in general she just didn't seem to be doing well, so first thing in the morning we took her to our usual vet. Among other things, our vet told us that the emergency clinic had missed many of Poppers injuries, and that one of her injuries was so bad that it would need a drain to ensure that the fluids didn't build up into an absess. When she left the vet she didn't look very good, but she'll be ok in the end, and that's really what matters.

Here are the pictures of myself and Popper up until this point:

The story's not over yet though, as much as I wish it was. Popper had been doing better, but on Friday, May 4th Christina had me take her back to the vet to check on her progress. The vet told me that things look good, but that she would take her in the back to clean things up a bit. A few minutes later she came out and said that the system they had set up to drain her fluids was only catching some of the wounds and that they would have to put her under and install another drain to ensure that she stays healthy. I left her there and went home for the day. When I came back and picked her up they had washed her shirt (she has been wearing shirts to make sure she doesn't try to get into her injuries), put on a bandanna, and had given her a new safety leash. Everyone was really nice, and they said that Popper's surgery went well. That night we left Popper resting in her cage and went to go see Spiderman 3.

The next morning I gave Popper her pills, picked her up and taken her outside for a walk as has been our routine while she has her injuries. I lifted up her shirt to see how she was doing and a huge chunk of her was literally missing. I called Christina instantly and told her what I had seen. She rushed out and we walked her back inside. I showed her the injuries and both of us sort of broke down for a few minutes. She called the vet and he said that this was normal and that she'd be ok soon. Her skin is going to die away and when we see how much damage the bites did the vet can start putting things back together again. He ensures me that she's going to be ok, but it's so hard to believe when she looks so bad.

If you aren't very squeamish, I suggest avoiding the following pictures. This is a close approximation of what she looked like on the morning of May 4th, but in reality she looks a lot worse depending on what direction her body is turned and what angle you're looking from:

And here are the pictures from May 6th:

Popper went to the vet on May 7th and got her gaping open wound cut out and sewed up. Here are some updated pictures:

Christina's account of the events can be read here:

I should preface this by saying that we live in a duplex and share our yard with our neighbor. On Tuesday night right before bed Wes went outside in the yard with Popper. He was sitting on the porch playing game boy while she sniffed and did her thing in the yard. At 10:45pm I heard screams from outside. I ran out and our neighbors pit bull was attacking our dog and she and Wes were frantically trying to get the dog to let go. Our neighbor had apparently taken her down to the porch and seen them in the yard and was going to wait and go back upstairs but her dog got past her and pushed its way out of the screen door. Wes told me he had punched the dog and dragged it but it wouldn't let go of Popper so he grabbed it and just squeezed it, trying to contain its movement. I just remember seeing its teeth in my dog's throat and pulling on it while screaming at its owner to make it stop. Somehow we got the dog away from Popper and I grabbed her and ran her inside. This is the second time this dog has attacked Popper, the last time being six months ago. I knew she was going to need to be wrapped up in towels and taken to the emergency vet. By this time Wes came inside and I saw that he was bleeding. I called his mom and my sister and they both started heading towards our house. Wes ended up driving himself to the hospital with his right hand wrapped in a towel while Patience and I took Popper to the vet. We got to the vet around midnight and they had to sedate her, put staples in her and flush her bites. They told us to keep an eye on her breathing because one of the punctures was in her throat area and if she started breathing irregularly we'd have a major emergency on our hands. We put Popper to bed at 1am and headed to the hospital to check on Wes. He and his mom were still in the waiting room. They had not even put a bandage on his hand when I got there but did give him a Tetanus shot. His mom and Patience left around 2 or 3am and Wes and I were not called in to see a doctor until 4:30am. This was 5 hours after checking in. Wes was shaking from what I took to be a mixture of pain and shock. It took them another hour to get Wes x-rays and then set up on an IV with antibiotics and some painkillers. They flushed out his hand with some saline and told us to keep an eye on it for infection and sent us home at 7am. When we got home at 7:30 we could tell that Popper was not doing well. She refused to eat or move and was leaking stool. We passed out for 3 hours and then took her to our vet. They told us that if we had waited longer the large wound in her shoulder could have absessed and caused worse complications. They took her in the back to insert a drain, give her fluids, and give her a closer inspection. We went home, got Wes more drugs, slept for another hour and then went back to get her at 6pm. In the mean time I had contacted our landlady who said she would require our neighbors to remove the dog within 24 hours and made a report to animal control. When Popper came home she was greeted by that dog howling and scratching at its front door. She was terrified and didn't even want to come into our house. Last night we had to put towels all over the house and put Popper in a t-shirt since she is draining blood and fluid from her bites. Every time she hears movement from upstairs she wakes up and starts growling. This morning when we woke up she was too tired and in too much pain to get out of bed. We had to take her outside to go potty and then were only able to get her to take her pain medicine before she needed to lie down again. Wes stayed home with her today while I had to go back to work. He said that after the pain medicine kicked in he was able to get her to take her other medications and eat some food. He called me at 3pm to tell me he had never heard a dog howl from pain before but that is what Popper seemed to be doing. Our neighbors are resisting removing thier dog from the house. They said that they would walk her on a leash rather than letting her into the yard. Our landlady is encouraging us to contact the police to make a report. I'm waiting to hear back from Wes on following up with animal control. I'm not the kind of person who likes to see a dog put down but I can't understand how this kind of dog can be allowed to hurt animals and people. I don't even have a problem with the breed of dog, I just think that if you have that kind of dog you need to be able to control it. The night of the attack they said they would pay the bills but the previous time this happened they did not pay and it was only $130. This time we've spent $500 on Popper so far and I don't know what Wes's hospital bills will be yet.

I'm very tired and I'm mad that this happened when we only had two weeks left at this apartment. On the other hand in two weeks we can move into our new house where we can hopefully keep our dog safe. We're going to have to start all over again with socializing her with new dogs again. She often felt threatened and frightened after her first attack so I can only imagine it will be worse after this second time. I just want to be home with my dog and Wes right now and it's hard for me to be at work. I kept waking up all night last night to make sure Popper was still breathing. I've gone from hysterics and crying to drained and shaky. Yesterday I was moving on nervous energy alone and today my mind is still half gone as I sit at work because I really just need to be able to sit at home with my dog.

That damn dog had better be gone when I get home.

~christina

Pray to whatever you believe in that Popper gets better soon. I love her so much, and want her to feel better more than anything else in the world.

-Wes