Cornered

This morning, the girls and I made it to the corner before we were viciously attacked by two large dogs. My neighbor, to whom I had just been speaking, stood there as I repeatedly called to him for help. I fumbled for my dog spray and took a chance at hitting the attacking dogs, instead of my dogs, as they each had sunk their teeth into Daisy's hind quarters, one on each side, and were starting to pull her toward them. Luckily, the spray hit one of them full in the face, so it let go, and as I turned the spray toward the other dog, it, too, let go and they took off running across an empty lot to the east of our location.

Daisy's hind quarters have deep puncture wounds on both sides of her body, as well as one fairly large tearing wound on her right side. She's at the vet, but should be able to return home this afternoon. The tearing wound is probably going to require surgery to repair, which means another significant vet bill that I have to pay with no recourse to hold the animal owners responsible because, even though I drove up and down the street the dogs headed toward, I have not been able to locate them.

I did call the police and told them I was attacked in the intersection, described the two dogs as very large "husky"-like dogs with blue eyes, and told the officer that they had fled east from the intersection. I also added that my neighbor, who (finally) came to my assistance, had been attacked by the same two dogs while he was in his own front yard, located at that corner. I suggested that the police need to find those dogs and contain them because dogs that will attack not just other dogs, but humans, are too dangerous to reside in a residential neighborhood.

That went well; they will send the animal control officer to my residence later today to take my report. Last time that officer came to my residence, when Mia was attacked and it cost me $1000 at the vet for treatment of her injuries, the officer could not help me because I did not know whether it was a male or a female German Shepherd that had jumped its wall and attacked us. I assured the officer that I was too busy fighting off the dog to look for a penis, but the witness statements, as well as the vet report/bill, were simply not evidence that could be used to hold the dog owners liable for the damages their dogs caused to my dogs.

Yesterday, another block up and a couple over, a pit bull came through the wooden fence. As I fumbled for my pepper spray, a city employee drove up in a city vehicle. I flagged him down and he put his truck against the fence, forcing the dog back inside, so we could escape. I can name all the streets and point out the houses where dogs have come outside their yards to attack us, but there is no recourse available to me except to stop walking my dogs.

Put simply, the vet bill from Mia's injuries hurt me financially at a time I had already committed to paying for the cruise, and here comes another vet bill when I'm trying to gather the financial resources to pay for the trip back east for my daughter's wedding. The dogs and I love going for our daily walks, but I'm beginning to think the risk outweighs the benefits for all 3 of us!