May Catch Up--Dogs

I went to work one Monday....typical, nothing out of the ordinary.  I barely am there an hour, and my mom calls me frantic, telling me I need to come home.  The dog next door got in the yard....in my panic, I did think to ask if our dogs are ok, she says yes, but Chris said I needed to come home.



I get home...the police are at the house next door, and the animal control officer is on our front porch talking to Chris, who was absolutely livid.



From what I can gather, Red and Bruno were outside, as they usually are in the morning.  Bruno has run of the yard as he is not as investigative as Red, who stays on a tie out when outside.  Today, of all days, he got off his collar.  The young woman who lives next door has a pit bull that our dogs cannot stand.  They bark incessantly anytime that dog is outside....they don't bark at the neighbor dog behind us or the other side of us...only this one.  Bark and paw and just go berserk...and her dog immediately goes barking at our fence everytime it comes outside.  Today was no exception; only today, a hole was made in the fence. 

Neighbor claims that Red and Bruno were on her side of the fence, pulled her dog to our side, and she was trying to pull her dog back while Red and Bruno were pulling on the other side.  Um, ok.  A few things wrong with that scenario. 

1) The part of the yard where this happened is just outside of my parents room.  As soon as the barking changed, my husband and son and mom were outside.  It happened too quickly for them to have been on her side and back again. 

2) If they had gotten on her side, why would they come back?  and

3) More importantly, the hole was too small for either of our dogs to have fit through singly, let alone together or with another dog in tow. 

I found out later that she cussed at my son.  My 14 year old son...I realize he is not the size of a typical 14 year old...but he does not look like an adult in appearance.  I was so angry...even contemplated going over there, but thought better of it.  And her dog scratched Chris' stomach in the scuffle. 

Red had a gash on his head...bad enough he needed to go to the vet.  Bad enough he needed stitches.  After his exam, we discovered he also had a cut on his neck and several on his right paw.  I asked the vet if he thought it was from the fence or teeth...he believes it was teeth. 

We didn't get any "before" pics....this is after the repair, which involved sedation, staying overnight, and the lovely blue stitches.

The oh so knowledgeable animal control officer couldn't even read the rabies certification....he put the date of the lot as the expiration date.  And said our fence wasn't stable enough for a 60+ pound dog.  Red doesn't even weigh 50 pounds. 



A couple weeks later, her dog got in our yard.  We bought an outdoor dog kennel that Red and Bruno go in when they go outside...her dog practically climbed the side of it.  I don't know what she was doing or why....but seriously?  If you can't control your dog by command, don't have it unrestrained outside.  How hard is that?  So I called animal control....and she put up another fence on her side.  There is still a hole out there...but we are hopeful it will be covered soon.



For good measure...here is Bruno...who was not hurt or at least not noticably if he was.