I was baking for the Knights of Columbus meeting when Colin came in the door with one dog on a leash and blood running down his arm.  He had the bad luck to get in the middle of a dog fight. 

 

Our pit bull who is well over 80 pounds decided to take the food Colin had given to our adult Great Pryenees (100+ pounds).  The pit bit his lower arm and the Pyr (either in the attempt to protect Colin or out of fear) went after the Pit.  Unfortunately the Pit knocked Colin's arm right into the Pyrs trajectory and she also bit his arm.

 

You can see each mouth outlined in tooth marks in his arm.  One going in each direction.  (Both dogs have large mouths so it does give one an idea how dangerous a dog attack can be if they are really trying to hurt you when you look at it.)  Thank God that the dogs were not really trying to hurt him.  When he said "No" in a firm voice they both released but it has frightened us as we have grandchildren.  A small child would not know to push into a dog bite instead of pulling away and instead of using an authoratative voice a child would have screamed and increased the level of tension making things worse.

 

We have decided that we will need to find a new home for the Pit because he is just NOT meant to be in a multile dog household.  He is a good dog and very people friendly (when he isn't eating my husband's arm) but the food guarding issue is a ticking time bomb and we cannot risk his being around a child.

 

Sadly with the dog fighting issues in Virginia we have to be very careful who we give him to.  He is a good dog and much of it is his age as he is only 9 months old and still very hyperactive.  It breaks our hearts to have to give him up but he needs a home with someone in their 20s who can take him jogging as the slow walks I can manage do not drain him enough to give him what he needs.

 

Now that I have given FULL information on the dog...

 

Colin is fine and doing the "he man / John Wayne immitation" thing.  I did force him to go to the ER to get a tetnus shot and prescription for antibiotics.  He did have a lovely bloody bandage to show off at the church meeting and an impressive story to tell but I think he would rather have missed out on the whole experience.  The arm is swollen and it will be all sorts of lovely shades of bruised but most of the bleeding has stopped (no stitches as it was only puncture wounds and those do better when allowed to bleed and clean themselves)  He says it doesn't hurt much but this is the same guy who wanted to wrap a towel around it and go to the meeting as if nothing had happened.  I have the dubious honor of having the doctor tell him I was right and explaining how important it was that he came in (Diabetics have a 90% infection rate from untreated animal bites) but again I would rather have missed the opertunity to have him told to mind his wife from now on.

 

Thank God it was not worse but all is well now.

 

PJ