Thursday, June 24, 2010

Naturally in the course of the dog fight, it's the bitch who gets hurt

Last week I was trying to take Toby for a walk, but he was incredibly hyper and behaving in a way that earns him the occasional title of "Devil Dog". Upon giving up my efforts, we turn around to head back home when some punk teenager from across the street walking some little terror/terrier thing (see below) crosses over towards us. Since we can now socialize Toby with some of his canine friends (or foes), I told the kid that my dog was a little too hyper to listen properly, so this was going to be a quick hello for the pups and then we'd be on our way. So about three seconds of nose-to-nose action happens and I decide that now's the time to leave...except little-black-terror-on-the-retractable-leash decides he hasn't had enough of Toby yet. Before I know it this thing is all over my puppy (who's about 4 times his size, but a complete wimp*), and I hear one dog barking and one dog crying and neither noise sounds like my dog. At one point The Terror finally shuts up for a second so I can discover it's my dog crying. Of course by this point I've been trying to get the dogs separated (with no help from the teenager, thankyouverymuch), but their leashes are all caught up with each other, and now that I realize it's my dog crying, I'm in a near-panic trying to get him away from this black ball of teeth. I reach into the chaos to grab Toby's leash as close to the collar as I can get it, and that's when it happens. The Terror strikes, and I get bitten. Fortunately it was a cooler night and I was wearing a jacket which I thought had acted as suitable protection from the rambunctious, vicious beast....however, I was a little wrong. He didn't break the skin, but one of these:



...managed to do this:


That would be a bruise about the size of the palm of my hand. I didn't even think the dogs mouth was that big.

Of course by the time I got them separated (again, no thanks to the other human involved in this little scenario), I got Toby the hell away from The Terror - not thinking twice about the dog bite since it didn't hurt and I thought I had been 'protected'. Naturally Toby was okay and promptly resumed his Devil-dog ways, as my arm started to throb. By the time I got in the apartment the beginnings of a bruise had formed, but it wasn't until the next day that I discovered the true wrath of The Terror.
Now that I've taken one bite for him, I think my dear Toby has the impression that I am his protector. When we take him to the off-leash dog park and a dog chases him, his ears flatten out, his tail tucks between his legs, and he bolts for cover behind my legs.

**I'm not exaggerating when I say my dog is a wimp. It's hard to tell if it's his nature or if it's just because he's still so young. I just took him out to the front of the building to do his nightly business-before-bed, and he got so freaked out by some shadows that he started crying (which echos off the building and seems to magnify), and practically dragging me towards the door in the pursuit of safety.

Leave it to me to bring home a dog that is quite literally afraid of his own shadow.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG girl, you sure lead an exciting life. We look forward to reading your blogs. We get a good laugh from them. Love and miss you.
PS: we are lughing with you not at you :)
Aunt Theresa & Uncle Terry

C. said...

I think terror should wear a woman's size 9 - just saying. Damn little beast. Doggies should be nice and that slinky that was walking him should be sized for shoes too.

OK I wouldn't do that but man I would have been making some noises unrecognizable myself in that little scenario.

Hope you arm is better. It looks like 2 bites now. Sounds like a pair of shoes :(