The Dogs' Altercation

Of course, the drama of the weekend wouldn’t be complete if it didn’t involve the dogs. Before we headed up to the hospital on Saturday, I decided to run home and pack a bag and let the dogs out. I was upstairs getting things ready when I heard shouting. I ran downstairs to find Sammy and the neighbor dog fighting the driveway. Before you say anything, I already know I should not get in between fighting dogs, and I’ve already been lectured on this point, but at the time, I don’t think-I just react. And that’s exactly what I did. I ran out and tried to separate the two (the other dog is probably 50-60lbs). It’s all a blur, so I’m not even sure exactly how I got them separated. All I know is I was screaming at the top of my lungs for the kids to go get help, I’m sure the entire neighborhood could hear me. I think he was frozen in fear because he just stood there. I tried separating them several different times, picking each of them up at different times, yanking the dog by the collar so hard that it came off, prying them apart, etc. I finally got Sammy in my arms and the other dog grabbed her leg and pulled her back down. Neither one of them was giving up, and I was afraid it was going to result in Sammy’s death. So I finally got Sammy in my arms, got the other dog off of her, and ran in the house. Benny, of course, was on the sidelines watching all the action happen but staying out of it. There was blood, but I wasn’t sure how bad it was. I did a quick check over and put her in the bathroom. All I could think is that I can’t deal with this. I need to take Nate to the hospital, this can’t really be happening right now, and not again. I finished packing the bags and went back down to check on Sammy. I figured if she had any really bad wounds there would be blood everywhere. There were a couple spots of blood on the floor, and checking her over again, I didn’t see anything serious. So I kept her in the bathroom and called Jaime back again. Jeremy said he would come up to help out. All the dogs are okay, and none needed to be taken to the vet. Sammy has a small wound on her back near her tail, but nothing too bad. Not like last time. The other dog is probably about the same, the owner said a couple small wounds but nothing too serious.
I, however, probably came out the worst. Heading out the door I realized my hand was bleeding. I didn’t have time to deal with it, so I just wrapped a towel around my hand and left. After I got Nate admitted in, I had the nurses look at it. They didn’t think I needed stitches and so they gave me some stuff to clean it up and bandage it. By Sunday morning it was hurting so bad. The bite is on my pointer finger, near my knuckle. It was really red and swollen and I can barely bend it. To put any pressure on it is excruciating. The nurses looked at it again and said that I need to have someone look at it. I waited until Nate was sleeping and decided since I was already at the hospital (and it was a Sunday so the only place open was the urgent care clinic and I didn’t want to leave Nate) I headed down to the ER. They weren’t busy so I checked in. It’s infected and so now I’m on antibiotics. I need to watch it for the next few days because the infection can spread into the tendons and then I would need surgery. Wonderful. It’s starting to feel slightly better, but I am still limited with how much I can do with it. I also am scraped up pretty bad on my knee and foot, probably from hitting the concrete getting down on the ground with the dogs. Lesson learned? Well, hopefully this will be the last dog fight Sammy will get in so we won’t need to find out how I react the next time.