I’m sorry for the sad note, but want people to be mindful of what can happen to their own dogs and to others, when dogs run loose.  Dogs who run in a pack can be very dangerous to small animals and children.  Real hunters don’t let their dogs run loose without them, so they don’t get accustomed to ripping up prey.  Neither do they half-starve their dogs, who are trained to hunt and wait for their “master” to take the prey.  Also, wild traits may show up in dogs with wolf in them—the kind people around us sell.

I grew up in the country and whenever loose dogs formed a pack, they inevitably began killing livestock and farmers, who were all hunters, would have to hunt them down.  There was no county department to take care of such things.  Then, ignorant wild life managers shipped in coyotes from Colorado…you can guess where it went from there.

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Two and a half weeks ago, our dog, Little P, was attacked for the second time in his life, by one or more part wolf dogs.  Right after hearing the commotion, we rushed outside and saw one large black wolf dog and some beagles at the scene.  There may have been more on the other side of some trees.

The vet said it looked like a big dog had bit into Little P and shook him back and forth, separating skin from muscles.  They operated to remove dying muscle tissue and stitched that up, but left the fang holes open for drainage.  We picked him up this Wednesday.  Jerry is flushing the holes twice per day.  He’s on antibiotics and pain pills, still.

I’m showing pictures of his still open wounds.  Most of the swelling has gone down, but for the nape.  He is again able to hold his head up, though it does wear him out.

P sure is happy to be at home and Jerry’s just as happy about having him home.  Thank goodness his legs were not injured.  He is still able to get around well on his three good legs and the one that had the bones crushed in an attack five years ago.  Since that truly miraculous healing, the leg full of splintered bone has allowed him to hobble and even run, using it.  Now, he enjoys when Jerry takes him outside, open wounds and all.

We learned that a pair of wolf dogs, a black and a white one, had twice attacked one of our tenant’s tall, but skinny hound.  One of the dogs picked up the hound by the scruff and threw him five feet over.  Both times, the girls chased them off, but did not shoot, thinking they belonged to their neighbor.

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Here’s an update:

On our way back from a checkup yesterday, we saw two-part wolf dogs, a black one and a white one, smaller than the black one we saw when the attack happened.  They were across the road, near where P was attacked, still on our land.  Jerry saw a third one—grey—enter our drive, following us, probably after the scent of P, as we took him into the heated breezeway, where he stays, now.

Jerry is adding a doggy door and extending the existing back yard wire fence that we built last spring, over past the door.  He has ordered white fencing to enclose part of the front yard and will adjoin that to the back yard fence.  He already has fenced off the end of the porch by the drive and added a gate at the steps.  P just loves the front porch.  He will be able to safely lie there, roam half the front yard, around to the back and up on the deck, or over to the doggy door.  That’s 3/4 of the perimeter of the house.  And he can happily walk the meadow and woods with Jerry.

He’s such a little ball of love.  Here he is, pre-haircut and post-first-haircut.  He seems to like short hair in the summer.  At least he can see.

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