Tuesday, December 23, 2008

On a much lighter note...



we'll just add this "trick" to the list of things chibi and sumo will never be able to do :)

Attacked on a Walk

It has been an eventful week. I took the dogs for a walk friday evening before we were headed out for dinner, no different than any other evening after work. We turned the corner at the end of our block to return home where another dog owner was also turning on his walk coming the opposite direction with his 2 rotweilers.

In the blink of an eye, one of his dogs had managed to pull lose of his grip and go after sumo. I tried to pull sumo away, but there isnt a whole lot you can do when a dog is charging full speed. Chibi tried to get in between them and protect him, which then triggered the 2nd rotweiler to pull it's owner forward and onto chibi. I had 2 shibas trying to get away from 2 rotweilers and a guy who couldnt control either of his dogs.

sumo was in the bite of one of them getting shook, while chibi was dancing and dodging the other inbetween getting bit. i gave up trying to get away from the rots when they let go each time, because they kept lunging forward anyways and the idiot owner couldnt get them back anyways. i tried grabbing for it's collar/leash to pull them off (primarily the one that had sumo becuase the one that was attacking chibi was still being "held" by the owner -- who was on the ground being dragged around). after getting a hold of the leash i gave it to the owner and backed away.

sumo got the brunt of the attack. his right paw was curled under, and i noticed blood on his coat. we had to rush the dogs to the vet. we found to 3 gashes on sumo with a few scrapes. he has/had a large tear on his upper right front shoulder and also one underneath his right leg on his chest area, along with a matching puncture wound on his right inside leg. the vet stapled him up (franken-sumo). she thinks there may be some neurological damage (which is why is paw is curled up occasionally when he tries to put his paw down). it may be just from the soreness, but we wont know for a few weeks to see how it heals. doesnt matter much anyways, if it's neurological, there isnt anything we can do about it.

he's been resting comfortably at home doped up on pain medication, anti-inflamatory, and anti-biotics.

chibi appears to have escaped with minimal physical harm.

my question (though this is purely rehtorical) is this, the owner of the rots said his dog was "dog aggressive". the owner is about 6', probably 200 to 210 pounds. he was walking 2 rots with a combined weight over his (they were large AND overweight). at what point did it seem like a good idea to walk down a highly populated residential street where other people walk their dogs?

i get that it isnt the breed, but my other point is....if they "can" be lethal dogs, but they arent when trained properly, but there are no requirements for owners to traine or have the dogs cerified/licensed to own them, how is that any different than allowing me to buy an assault rifle? guns dont kill people, people kill people right? i should be allowed to buy whatever i want?

strange as it sounds, i remembered an episode of the dog whisperer during the attack. "do not pickup your dog when it's being attacked, it may make you the target becuase you're holding it close to your body and the attacking dog wont know the difference" my initial instinct WAS to pickup sumo and run, but then i remembered that tip.

i'm glad i wasnt bit, i'm glad our daughter wasnt on the walk with me as she sometimes is. im just left in wonder sometimes, WTF people are thinking.

mom took some pics of franken-sumo, ill try to remember to post them later one we get them off her cam.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Forgot About...

A few weeks back, we noticed a bump/growth behind Chibi's left ear near her neck. Went to the vet to have it checked out. Luckily it wasn't cancer. They took a small biopsy and had it tested. The vet said sometimes younger dogs/pups have these small growths, and they eventually just go away/fall off.


We've been keeping an eye on it, and it has been getting smaller and is starting disappear :)


Found a pic (not a great one), from mom's camera phone of the doggies when it's cold and rainy outside and they dont feel like getting up.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Happy Birthday

This week Sumo will be one year old. Amazing. We're assuming he will be starting his crackhead (or more crackhead) phase of teenage behavior. Chibi was between 12-14 months when she started.

Other minor updates:
  • Dogs have been destroying toys at an alarmingly expensive rate (especially toy balls)
  • Sumo hates cold/rainy days and will hold his poop until it stops raining
  • We've stopped giving cookies after successful trips outside ot pee/poop and it has reduced the number of times they've gone outside and done nothing
  • Sumo's habit of barking at strangers (particularly men) has started to show up again (as well as barking at garbage cans, motorcycles that are parked, and random trees and bushes)