by Tiger » March 14th, 2010, 2:52 pm
I had a sort of mental checklist running through my head when the situation began, but I don't know if one could consider me calm under the circumstances. Focused yes, calm no.
Get Otis into the house first - I knew he would be the most difficult to contain when it got really bad because he is very, VERY hot to dogs not of his pack and I was afraid that he might accidentally bite me if he got too wound up while trying to get to them. Plus he is the largest of my crew and if he started pulling at the gate from this side while they pulled at the gate from that side - I knew it was going to be impossible to get him off that gate. In the house - in the crate - where he immediately began, and continued, to scream like a banshee the entire time...
Doja in the house next - because she was running around the yard like a lunatic and getting all in my way paying little attention to me other than to keep looking back at me and smiling! Doja actually thought this was FUN - until I grabbed her off of the ground and pitched her head first into the house and she went rolling across the floor. Grab her by the collar drag her to a crate and stuff her in.
Domino is the lightest in weight - she can be corralled last. OMG - look at Gracie! Is that my Gracie lunging and snapping and snarling? $HIT! One has a head IN the yard now through the hole they made in the gate and Gracie is biting its head - shaking her head back and forth and tearing its face! "LEAVE IT LEAVE IT LEAVE IT - in the house NOW!!!" Gracie breaks off and runs towards the house with me as I grab Domino up into the air, open the kennel and pitch Domino in as Domino has turned into a squirming mass of "I'm gonna KILL THEM!" and I cannot hold her anymore, (even if she does only weigh 30lbs). Open the back door - shoo Gracie in. Gracie is throwing herself bodily against the sliding glass door wanting back out because I am out there and part of me idly wonders if she is going to break the door.
One dog is now half-way through one of the holes. Run back into the yard and grab the freshly filled five gallon water bucket. Throw all of the water onto the strays - right in their faces. The dog withdraws from the hole long enough for me to grab the shovel hanging on the fence. Stuff the shovel head into the hole as a block as the dogs are now now enraged - completely enraged. Like a rabid pair of small Cujos.
Domino is going ape $hit crazy in the run - pulling on the wire trying to climb it to get out. To get to them. She's screaming like a nut and I can hear Otis in the house bansheeing OVER the noise and fear he's going to break out of his crate any second. I think - not good. If he gets out of the crate while Gracie is like that loose in the house going crazy at the door - those two are going to get into it. The strays focus on Domino and start pulling on the gate and ripping it harder pulling more of it loose getting more of their bodies through the holes that they have made. If I leave the gate for one second, they will be in it.
Grab the garden hoe, (one of those little hand-held ones), off of the fence and whack the fencing of the kennel with it and yell at Domino to leave it. She drops to a crouch but continues the banshee wail noise and gets all stiff looking and focused tighter on the dogs as she pulls at the fencing of the run with her teeth. Rascal and Bud, already in the dog run when this all began, run into the dog houses and just watch the situation as it unfolds. Rascal is so afraid that he looses control of his bladder.
Chop with the hoe on the dogs' snouts with one hand - stab with the shovel with the other. I know that if they get into the yard, they will attack me because I am keeping them from the dogs they want in the run. I would not be able to make it to the back door before they got in. Spare 2 seconds to dial 911 with my cell phone. I cannot hear anyone on the other line over the barking/snarling/screaming dogs. I just keep repeating my address and asking for help telling the phone over and over - dog attack - dog attack - dog attack. Come to the back of the house - come to the back of the house - while I chop chop chop at the dogs with the hoe while trying to keep the shovel pinned in place with my foot as one's teeth are grabbing at my sneaker. There's no way that they could not hear the dogs on their end, but I have no idea, what, if anything, they said in return because by now, the phone is laying on the ground. I don't even know if they are coming......so I start to scream for help hoping that a neighbor will hear me and come help me. No one comes. No one is going to keep this from being a catastrophe except me, but I keep screaming for help. And I keep chopping and I keep stabbing and keep praying under my breath for what seemed like forever before the cop and AC came.
They drive up together and the AC guy gets out of his truck and climbs on top of it. Not on the hood of it - on TOP of the cage part of the back of the truck. And then the cop starts to shoot as the AC guy yells at me to get away from the fence so that he can shoot them. The dogs break off the fence attack and run towards the side of my house - I slammed open the kennel, grabbed Domino up off of the ground and ran for the house while calling Bud and Rascal to me - stuffed them into the back door - slammed it shut again - ran back for the yard, and through the back gate screaming at the cop to stop shooting - stop shooting. The idiot is still on top of his truck while I ran around to the side of the house and grabbed the smaller dog's chain. They have no fight in them now - they just want to get away, but the side yard is also fenced and the gate is shut and they cannot get away....the blue fawn tries to squirm underneath my car, but it is too low to the ground
Once the cop realizes that I am not getting bitten and that I am between him and the dogs, he puts away his gun, and the other idiot climbs down from the top of hit truck with his catch pole in hand and grabs the blue fawn with it as she tries to get more of her body under my car...he leads her to the truck and picks her up with the pole and stuffs he in the cage.
I soothed the other dog as best as I could with my voice as I dragged it toward me by its chain and led it to the truck. The AC idiot opens the door, and I lifted the dog up and put it into the cage - and it was over.
Total time elapsed? I think about 12-15 minutes.
And the neighbor STILL has yet to go check on the dogs at the pound...
~Tiger
Doja; TT, CGC, CD, CDX, UD
Gracie; TT, CGC, CD, CDX, UD, UDX
Otis; CD, CDX
Domino; CD, CDX
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