Happy Ending!
It’s a go! Love! Love! Love! They’re so happy together!!!!! I don’t know which one is the happier of the two. Adoption complete; now working on the last health issues (dental cleaning, micro-chipping, etc.) which is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Big event for this weekend: Jolie attacked an Akita in front of our house on the way to the mailbox Thursday night. She has stitches and a drain in her hip. Thankfully the Akita only caught her with a passing nip so Jolie wasn’t even bleeding, but the skin was torn open bad enough to need stitches and a drain. She’s in a lot of pain, still giving her pain meds every 8 hours and that’s helping a lot. Friday she hardly came out of the crate all day because she was still coming down off the anesthesia they administered in the ER in order to install the drain and stitch her up. Now she has begun to follow me from room to room again. Poor thing! But she attacked the other dog, not the other way around. Graphic photo:
Jolie’s dog bite injuries
Here’s how it happened: Every day (or most every day) I put Jolie on a leash and we walk across the street to the mailbox to gather our daily junk mail allotment. Thursday was no different. I had met Ronnie for dinner, came home, put Jolie on her leash and walked out the front door. Immediately across the street she spied this Akita dragging his leash down the street; the owner was half a block down headed toward him. The hair rose on Jolie’s back and she went into “Rottweiler mode”. I pulled back on the leash while saying, “No, Jolie. No, Jolie” which has never stopped her before but which came naturally into my conversation when dealing with canines. She popped her head around and slipped completely out of her collar then charged the Akita at warp speed and me running behind her yelling “No, Jolie. No, Jolie” to absolutely no effect. The Akita turned around, saw Jolie charging toward him and looked like he was laughing at her ridiculous threat. But Jolie is in Rottweiler mode so she doesn’t know he’s bigger/meaner than her and she never slows down, just charges him nipping at his ankles. Of course, he nipped back but he picked her up in his jaws by her hips and then put her down (thankfully). I could see she was injured but Jolie didn’t know she was injured; I was waiting for the blood which thankfully never came. When he put her down, Jolie did an about-face and charged him again. He circled her a few times now with me and his owner in the circle trying to separate the two of them before Jolie got hurt any worse. I even had a moment’s fear that the Akita would jump me because I was too close, but I backed up a step and so did he out of respect for each other.
That was when Jolie realized she was hurt, put her tail between her legs and headed back toward the house. Thankfully! She was right beside me going through the front door even though she had no collar or leash on. I shut the door then chased her in, turning on lights all the way so I could assess the damage. One good look was all I needed to know she needed veterinary care sooner rather than later. I could see the tissue under the torn, gaping skin on her hip and even though she wasn’t bleeding she would need pain medicine and antibiotics. One glance at the clock told me it would be the veterinary ER because our vet was closed for the day. Crap!
So, I called Ronnie, who had stopped to buy gas and told him to please come home as soon as he was finished fueling the truck so he could help me get Jolie to the ER. I had her in a crate with a clean blanket; I just needed some muscle to get the whole shebang into the car (Jolie is a hefty little girl who bites when you push her the wrong way and, since she was in pain, every way was the wrong way). He got home posthaste and off to the ER we three went. Of course they had to keep her overnight, put her to sleep in order to install a drain where the skin was gaped open, then stitch her all up. I picked her up at 7:30 Friday morning and brought her home. She goes in to our regular vet tomorrow afternoon to get the drain looked at. We’ve decided to put her in a harness full-time because she hates having the harness put on and tries to bite me when I dress her. That’s why she was in her collar and not a harness (which she can’t get out of no matter how much she hates it). That will be done today and she’ll just have to learn to like it…..or she will never go out the front door again in my (or her) lifetime.
This is the 2nd dog she’s attacked in front of our house on the way to the mailbox. The first time it was a little, furry white dog on a leash walking with his mom down the street. Jolie did the same thing: popped out of her collar and charged him with me running behind her. She runs faster than I do, of course. Thankfully the first time the lady had a stick and hit Jolie with it several times, so by the time I got to Jolie she had not hurt the poor little dog who was totally innocent and wondering what the hell was going on. Jolie has chased (or offered to chase) the big dogs who live directly across the street who thankfully mind better than Jolie and came to their owner when he summoned them….or we would have had this scenario a couple of weeks ago. If she didn’t need the extra exercise (she has COPD, a heart murmur and is very overweight) she would simply stop going out the front door but she does love her special time with me away from the other dogs. She’s used to being an only child so the mailbox trip is something she does without sharing her mom-time attention. But, from now on she doesn’t go unless I am in total control of her. This shit sucks!
Texas Lady 