Attack!

First off just to save your concern, Duncan and I were amazingly both left completely safe and unharmed after the following events had taken place. I think it is a miracle, but we are...

I started running every other day after I got home from Michigan. I took Debbie with me on my first run and immediately determined she would not be a suitable running partner. We started out slow, but it was apparent that running is not something that she really enjoys. That’s ok though. Since I had taken her by herself for our run, later that evening I took Duncan for a walk around our neighborhood - just the two of us. It was a beautiful evening and we were almost home - just around the corner when I noticed someone’s trash, out for trash pickup the next morning, had been rummaged through by a dog or dogs. “Great,” I thought, “we’ve got a loose dog running around the neighborhood.” I’ve lived here for almost two years now and have never seen any dogs running loose.

We got to the corner where we would turn back on to our own street, about 4 or 5 doors down from home when I saw a dog cross the street from my side to the far side and disappear into the shadows between houses. Duncan and I stopped and waited under the street light on the corner there. I couldn’t see what kind of dog it was from the distance, and you never know... So we waited for a few minutes. After a few minutes when I hadn’t seen anything we went ahead and continued home.

We were about two doors from home when the dog came rushing out of the shadows across the street towards us, growling and snarling. I could hear the “ting, tang” of tags on the collar on his neck as he approached at high speed, his nails clicking on the pavement. It was a Pit-bull, and he was heading straight for my Duncan! Duncan swung away, around me at the end of his leash and I began yelling, “No!” and “Get!” at the top of my lungs; over and over and over. He was so close that I could see that he had a silver pinch collar on. This wasn’t just a stray dog; he was someone’s pet that must have gotten loose. The dog collided with Duncan. I expected to hear a painful yelp, yipe, or cry at any second. But it never came. I tried pulling Duncan away by the leash knowing full well that it wouldn’t do any good if this dog got hold of him but that my stepping in and reaching for either of them would just get me bitten or mauled. The dog lunged for Duncan two or three times growling and snarling the whole time, a I continued to yell “No!” and “Get!” over and over and over. There wasn’t anything else I could do. I knew that if we turned and ran he would pursue, so I stood my ground and battled him with nothing but my voice. He lunged at me once, and I completely expected to feel his teeth sink into my arm. But somehow that didn’t come either. After what seemed like several minutes, but was probably really only several second to one minute, the dog seemed to reluctantly give up and began to back away. I started to turn to lead Duncan back to the house, but I could see that if I turned my back on the dog he would continue his attack. So I held my ground and kept yelling “Get!” at him as he continued to bark and snarl at me, and I began to feel the fear my adrenaline had suppressed so far. The dog began to walk away, but kept looking back at me, growling threateningly, fiercely. I think that threat frightened me more than anything else had so far: that he would turn and resume his attack rather than continue walking away. But he didn’t. I began to back down the street towards home, keeping my face towards the animal. He continued up the street and soon was under the very street light Duncan and I had been standing under when we had initially spotted him crossing the street. He turned the corner and continued up the street in the direction from which we had just come, back towards the strewn trash...

As I turned to get Duncan into the house the rest of the world around me returned, as I realized it had even been gone. I had been so focused on the Pit-bull that I hadn’t noticed that my neighbor had come out and was standing on her front porch, staring at me in bewilderment. I got Duncan inside and went over to talk to her. We call the police who said that Animal Control’s budget had been cut, and they wouldn’t actually come out unless someone had actually been attacked. I certainly felt attacked! But I guess their definition of attacked meant someone actually had to be bitten. This really frightened and frustrated me because there is an elementary school in my neighborhood and school had just started that week. Children would be walking to school the next morning! A police officer did come out however and drove around the neighborhood with his spotlight seeing if he could spot the animal, but they did not find him.

Once I began to calm down a bit I checked Duncan’s body all over. Not a single scratch or bite, but there was slobber all over the fur on his back! I was surprised that he was not trembling in the slightest. But perhaps he had just calmed down himself by then. And then I noticed that there was also slobber all over my elbow and forearm too! I just don’t know how it is that neither of us got bitten!

So now resentfully, I no longer walk my dogs in our own neighborhood. I have no idea if this dog is still loose, or if he could get loose again. Even more resentfully, I look up and down the street before I even step out of my front door to make sure there are no stray dogs about - especially when I am taking the dogs to the car.

For any of you who do not live in the Kansas City area, a spotlight has been on the Pit-bull and those who own them in this area recently, as there have been several attacks by Pit bulls over the past year or so - some of them fatal. Many local municipalities have passed a ban on the breed, and there is much controversy over this. There is argument over whether the breed itself is just too dangerous, or if the owners of the animals that have attacked have just been irresponsible in their pet’s upbringing and socialization, and securing their pet from running loose. I have never, and am still not, one who has felt that a ban on a specific breed is going to definitively protect people from an attack. I feel very strongly that if you own a dog of a breed that has tenancies for aggression that you need to be vigilant in your training and socialization (to people, situations and other animals) of your dog. And you also need to be responsible for securing your dog from getting loose, increasing the possibility of your dog hurting someone or even itself.