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Yall might remember me from previous posts...just a refresher:
1) I brought in a crazy jack russell terrier into my home because I found out my patient, an army wife with a husband deployed in Iraq, had been rushed into surgery and had to leave her dog at the house and had no one else to take care of the dog...and the crazy sequelae that occured
2) I had the military family next door to me who apparently had gone on vacation and not left proper food/shelter/water for their dogs for over a week, and were not properly contained in the back yard and I ended up going through a big ordeal with taking care of them, and finding out through military channels where the family were-if they had gotten into a wreck and the dogs were just forgotten, or were they actually on vacation etc..
Well.....fast forward....My fellow coworker goes on vacation for Christmas and New Years and knowing I am an animal lover and have no family, she asks if I could ranch-sit and take care of her dogs,cats and horses on her ranch.
I pack up my truck and my dogs, and move to the ranch for two weeks. (after an orientation and meet and greet with my dogs and her dogs).
This ranch-sitting involves a much longer commute to work, and getting up 330am to feed horses, turn em out to pasture, and then take care of my dogs, her dogs, and her cats in order to get to work by 7 or 8am.
The first night, my dogs are playing in one of the big yards fine, they all sleep in my bed fine (my dogs: pug and boston terrier; her dogs: German Shepherd and black lab).
Second night, Christmas Eve, I come home early in the afternoon. I let all four dogs play in the front yard (neutral territory, as the backyard is her dogs domain). My pug is sniffing the yard, fixin to pee...doing nothing. Out of the blue, totally unprovoked, her German Shepherd attacks her and then the black lab (pack mentality), joins in. I pull the dogs off of her and put them in the back yard and come back to the front yard to check out my pug, and see a huge deep puncture wound on her back, bleeding.
I am in an unfamiliar territory, an hour and half away from my own vet and my home. I call every vet in the area, none are open. I go to the closest emergency vet, almost an hour away, and end up spending Xmas Eve there, and $220 bill.
The story of my life-no good deed goes unpunished.
Needless to say, the next week, I kept the dogs separated, but my pug was so traumatized, that she would not even go walk onto the grass in the front yard, so twice a day, I had to walk down the half mile driveway with my ranch gate remote, open the ranch gate, and take her on a walk along the bar ditch of the farm road, just to go do her business. ARGH!
Yall might remember me from previous posts...just a refresher:
1) I brought in a crazy jack russell terrier into my home because I found out my patient, an army wife with a husband deployed in Iraq, had been rushed into surgery and had to leave her dog at the house and had no one else to take care of the dog...and the crazy sequelae that occured
2) I had the military family next door to me who apparently had gone on vacation and not left proper food/shelter/water for their dogs for over a week, and were not properly contained in the back yard and I ended up going through a big ordeal with taking care of them, and finding out through military channels where the family were-if they had gotten into a wreck and the dogs were just forgotten, or were they actually on vacation etc..
Well.....fast forward....My fellow coworker goes on vacation for Christmas and New Years and knowing I am an animal lover and have no family, she asks if I could ranch-sit and take care of her dogs,cats and horses on her ranch.
I pack up my truck and my dogs, and move to the ranch for two weeks. (after an orientation and meet and greet with my dogs and her dogs).
This ranch-sitting involves a much longer commute to work, and getting up 330am to feed horses, turn em out to pasture, and then take care of my dogs, her dogs, and her cats in order to get to work by 7 or 8am.
The first night, my dogs are playing in one of the big yards fine, they all sleep in my bed fine (my dogs: pug and boston terrier; her dogs: German Shepherd and black lab).
Second night, Christmas Eve, I come home early in the afternoon. I let all four dogs play in the front yard (neutral territory, as the backyard is her dogs domain). My pug is sniffing the yard, fixin to pee...doing nothing. Out of the blue, totally unprovoked, her German Shepherd attacks her and then the black lab (pack mentality), joins in. I pull the dogs off of her and put them in the back yard and come back to the front yard to check out my pug, and see a huge deep puncture wound on her back, bleeding.
I am in an unfamiliar territory, an hour and half away from my own vet and my home. I call every vet in the area, none are open. I go to the closest emergency vet, almost an hour away, and end up spending Xmas Eve there, and $220 bill.
The story of my life-no good deed goes unpunished.
Needless to say, the next week, I kept the dogs separated, but my pug was so traumatized, that she would not even go walk onto the grass in the front yard, so twice a day, I had to walk down the half mile driveway with my ranch gate remote, open the ranch gate, and take her on a walk along the bar ditch of the farm road, just to go do her business. ARGH!
It was nice of you to ranch sit - especially with the herd you were trying to manage! Has your Pug calmed down now that she is home?Did your co-worker offer to split the vet bill? (I hope)
yes it was alot of work, mucking the stalls etc! but i love animals and love being outdoors, and would do this for any friend.
yes my pug has calmed down now that she is in a "safe" zone and my coworker is paying the whole vet bill (or so she says-will see tomorrow when we are back at work)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Va-Cat
It was nice of you to ranch sit - especially with the herd you were trying to manage! Has your Pug calmed down now that she is home?Did your co-worker offer to split the vet bill? (I hope)
You are a good soul! As the Catholics used to say, you are earning stars for your crown in heaven (at least that's what they said in La. when I was growing up). So sorry it turned into such an ordeal.
Yall might remember me from previous posts...just a refresher:
1) I brought in a crazy jack russell terrier into my home because I found out my patient, an army wife with a husband deployed in Iraq, had been rushed into surgery and had to leave her dog at the house and had no one else to take care of the dog...and the crazy sequelae that occured
2) I had the military family next door to me who apparently had gone on vacation and not left proper food/shelter/water for their dogs for over a week, and were not properly contained in the back yard and I ended up going through a big ordeal with taking care of them, and finding out through military channels where the family were-if they had gotten into a wreck and the dogs were just forgotten, or were they actually on vacation etc..
Well.....fast forward....My fellow coworker goes on vacation for Christmas and New Years and knowing I am an animal lover and have no family, she asks if I could ranch-sit and take care of her dogs,cats and horses on her ranch.
I pack up my truck and my dogs, and move to the ranch for two weeks. (after an orientation and meet and greet with my dogs and her dogs).
This ranch-sitting involves a much longer commute to work, and getting up 330am to feed horses, turn em out to pasture, and then take care of my dogs, her dogs, and her cats in order to get to work by 7 or 8am.
The first night, my dogs are playing in one of the big yards fine, they all sleep in my bed fine (my dogs: pug and boston terrier; her dogs: German Shepherd and black lab).
Second night, Christmas Eve, I come home early in the afternoon. I let all four dogs play in the front yard (neutral territory, as the backyard is her dogs domain). My pug is sniffing the yard, fixin to pee...doing nothing. Out of the blue, totally unprovoked, her German Shepherd attacks her and then the black lab (pack mentality), joins in. I pull the dogs off of her and put them in the back yard and come back to the front yard to check out my pug, and see a huge deep puncture wound on her back, bleeding.
I am in an unfamiliar territory, an hour and half away from my own vet and my home. I call every vet in the area, none are open. I go to the closest emergency vet, almost an hour away, and end up spending Xmas Eve there, and $220 bill.
The story of my life-no good deed goes unpunished.
Needless to say, the next week, I kept the dogs separated, but my pug was so traumatized, that she would not even go walk onto the grass in the front yard, so twice a day, I had to walk down the half mile driveway with my ranch gate remote, open the ranch gate, and take her on a walk along the bar ditch of the farm road, just to go do her business. ARGH!
I feel your pain.
My holidays were ruined by a sick dog, too...
Sounds like your were lucky to have gotten off with ONLY a $220 bill. It could have been much worse!
Yikes, the poor pug. When she got back, did your friend pay you for petsitting (not sure if that was pre-arranged) and/or the vet bills (or maybe offer to split it) - ?? While her dogs may have been territorial in their backyard, they know the front yard is theirs too and may have been upset w/ her not there etc. Am just glad you were outside w/ them to help break it up, it could have been much worse as the pug wouldn't have stood a chance against the other 2.
Just a note, sometimes things aren't what they seem. I would never leave mine home alone w/ another dog, esp. a large one who I wasn't sure of. In fact, I separate mine (same breed/size and raised together) when I go out as the one can get a little testy at times and it just makes life easier all around, it's just not worth chancing it.
PS Just read that she said she'll pay the vet bill, that's a good thing (and hopefully she means what she says).
Last edited by Honeycrisp; 01-04-2009 at 10:40 AM..
Reason: adding PS
Awww, I'm so sorry your pug was attacked! Glad she's OK but not glad y'all had that trauma and vet. bill!
For future reference, most vets won't stitch puncture wounds from bites. They have to heal from the inside out and there's not a lot a vet can do, except clean the wounds well and possibly bandage. When my Oliver was attacked by the feral Rott., I got on the phone with the vet and on the Internet. Oliver had all of his shots up-to-date so we didn't have to worry about rabies or the other diseases. So, the vet recommended cleaning the wounds really well, applying antibacterial ointment and covering them, if possible.
Ollie is too fluffy for a bandage to stay, so I clipped the hair around the wounds, cleaned them well, and applied liquid bandage. It worked GREAT! That stuff is MAGIC for helping puncture wounds heal plus it took the pain away. I'll always have a bottle of it on hand from now on!
Poor Pug! I'm glad she's okay...you are an amazing friend and animal person, that sounds like A LOT of work!
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