ruff ruff

it seems like the hot topic around our house the last of june and all of july has been the red heads dog bite. you can see from the picture below that it wasn't something people ignored. it was right there on his face. right in the middle. this picture can't do the swelling justice. his nose was spliced across the rim and the puncture on his head got to the size of a quarter with infection.

it happened one summer night when he decided to go out jogging. i told him that's what he gets for exercising. he should have stayed home with his incubating wife and eaten ice cream;)

he had just helped the neighbor locate some horses that were thought to be missing. he hadn't been gone for more than 10 minutes. i already told you about the call that made me embarrassed because i laughed so hard. a call telling me my husband was bit on the nose by a dog. i could only picture him dragging his nose along the road to get such punishment. i didn't end up seeing him until the next evening because he spent the night in the ER and got up early for a full day of surgery.

my husband was innocently running along the road. some people were coming off a mountain hike and their trail just happened to intersect with the road scott was running on. these people happen to live a few houses down from the trail and let their 2 large boxers off their leash. scott heard some yelling thru his ipod and took out his speakers. a jogger for these dogs was like a moving target. he decided to stop running as they were right on his heels. they both came up to his waist. he went to pet the one that was acting up and bent his head about 2 inches when the other one lunged at his face. no bark, no growl, nothing. you can see where the jaw was open and got him. he said before he realized what was happening he had this reaction to jerk back. he didn't know why he did this but it coincided with when the boxer clamped his jaw down. just as scott's head came up he saw a jaw clamp down in front of his face. he is incredibly lucky to have his nose still in tact although he now boasts a good scar.

this has been an eye opening experience for us. in our county, a dog can bite three times before it has to be put down. pathetic. why do people buy big dogs? i wonder if these dog owners realize the history of a boxer. boxers were bread to kill cows and take them down at the face, suffocating it. that is why this one went for the face, it's what boxers do. scott was in line with two other dog bites at the er that night. his was the best outcome as the other unfortunate victims were getting their faces put back on in the operating room all night.

every ER staff member told him that boxers, pit bulls and rottweilers are their only offenders in the ER. They are fighting dogs.

of course when this first happened the dog owners were beside themselves, reassuring us they were going to put the dog down. they have small children and didn't want to take any chances. after a day had passed we got a loaf of bread and a promise that they will use a chain to keep the dog restrained along with some training.

this was probably one of the hardest things scott has had to go thru. he really struggled with being upset with these people. he kept saying, why would they waste their free warning on a nice guy like me that won't sue them? his anger came from thoughts of the dog doing this again and the fault being with him because he didn't put up a stink about the dog being put down.

he had me take the above picture in his angry phase, just in case it needed to be documented.

the dog owners kept calling and scott had to leave their calls unreturned. i told him not to call until his anger was gone, that was an okay thing to do. so after a month he ran into them. his anger has dissolved but he didn't side step with them. he told them he is scared to run past thier house now and he hopes they are using a chain......

some people.