Roxie's Bad Day

Roxie and I had a bad start to our day on Tuesday. There we were, innocently going for our morning walk, all was well in the world. Ok, not all was well, but a lot was! I had overslept a bit that morning (just couldn't get my butt out of bed) so I had to cut our morning walk a bit short. So we go down a road we don't normally walk on (but have a few times in the past).

I heard a door open as we were nearing the end of the street, but think nothing of it. Next thing I know this big white dog runs right past us onto the road, her owner yelling at her from the doorway. I blink, and the dog has attacked Roxie. Looked like she got Roxie's right back leg firmly in her mouth- Roxie is screaming, I grab Roxie and lift her into the air with one hand, and am reaching for the big dog with the other. I think I was going for her eyes to make her let go of my dog! The dog's owner comes running full tilt out of the house, almost knocks me over to get to his dog. We break the hold on Roxie, and it takes the owner a few tries to grab his dog (she is dancing around out of his reach, not looking away from Roxie). Owner finally grabs the collar and drags the dog into the house. I tell him I want his name and phone number for any vet bills.

While he is in the house I am checking Roxie over. No blood, but she won't let me look at the back leg. Owner comes out after a few minutes, apologizes and says his dog has never done that before or he would never have just opened the door. He gives me a piece of paper with his name and phone number on it, and I meanwhile had left myself a voice mail with the address. He hopes Roxie is okay.

So a few minutes have passed since "the event" and Roxie seems to be limping. We head home (we were only about 10 minutes from home) and after a few minutes the limp appears to be gone. When we get in the house I do a more thorough check, and I can't see any marks on her. She is running through the house chasing her ball, with no sign of a limp. I phoned Saanich to report the attack, and left a report. Around 9am (I am at work by now) Animal Control calls me back and I give another statement. The ACO tells me the address has no prior complaints, and they will stop by later that day to talk to the owner. That's all I wanted - just to scare some common sense into the owner!!

Next day Roxie is still looking fine, but when I am checking over her backpack that she wears I can see a tooth mark - looks like the dog grabbed mostly her pack, and didn't get a good grip! Thank goodness she missed on the first run, or she would have gotten Roxie by the head or throat.....

So the most frustrating thing about all this (once I calmed down)? It was a young male with a pitbull. I am a strong supporter of pitbulls, and I am out there every day fighting the stereotype, defending the breed. And what do I run into? An owner with his head up his ass. I was so mad at him for allowing his dog to get into that situation, I wanted to go back to his house and yell at him.

So Roxie and I are out for our walk the next day. We do the full loop we normally do, and are walking up the hill to the house. We come across a guy walking another little dog. Roxie has her normal pull/bark/freakout reaction. Guy asks if the dogs can meet. I say sure, as usually Roxie calms if she can sniff the other dog. Today, no sniff, she just lunges for the other dog and tries to bite it's face. Lovely, six months of working on her dog reactive behaviours, flushed down the drain. Back to square one......