When Dogs Attack

I had an frightening experience this morning. I woke up a little late, and I set out to take Morgan for a walk. As we were heading across the driveway in front of my house, I noticed a woman across the street struggling to control her two dogs. She dropped the leash for one of them, and it bolted across the street and headed straight for Morgan. It attacked Morgan right at her throat. I kicked it away, and Morgan started whimpering. A half a minute of chaos followed, during which I was shocked to see the fur around Morgan's throat covered with blood. By this time the woman had run across the street with her other dog, and she was getting pulled around as she tried to control both dogs and keep them away from Morgan.

I took Morgan back up my steps, and I looked at her throat. Luckily, it turned out that her skin had not been broken by the other dog. I was going to tell the woman that she really needed to be able to keep her dogs under control, but she took some of the wind out of my sails when she explained that the dog who attacked Morgan had mouth cancer, which caused all the blood. She said the dog was probably going to die within a year.

I was still determined to report her to animal control (and my landlord said that he'd back up my story, because he saw the whole incident from his window), but a co-worker told me that if the dog's skin isn't broken, there's nothing they can do. I hope the woman finds somebody who can control those dogs, though. If she keeps on trying to walk them, it's only a matter of time before something more serious happens.

Morgan was quite freaked out by this, and all through the walk this morning she was slinking around and pulling on her leash. By the evening, though, she seemed to have recovered. Here she is relaxing after our evening walk: