When the phone rang Daddy sounded a bit scattered. He was talking about Oreo bleeding and trying to tell the story, but it was hard to hear him. The girls and their friend were wailing in the background.
He was about two blocks from our house when the neighbor's white pit bull ran out the front door and attacked Oreo. The pit bull grabbed Oreo's neck and wouldn't let go. Daddy was kicking the pit bull. The girls were screaming and crying. The pit bull's owner was on the ground trying to get her dog off Oreo. A neighbor ran over and moved the girls away from both dogs.
When the owner finally got her dog off Oreo, she apologized and told Daddy her dog had all his shots. She was truly sorry.
I didn't care that she was sorry. Her dog attacked Oreo and drew blood. It all happened in front of our girls and their friend. We were both angry.
We went to the police and had a report written. We called City Hall to leave a message for the animal control officer. No matter how sorry the owner was, I insisted on escalating the attack. We don't know if Oreo will get sick in a day or a week or not at all. I wanted it documented in case a problem developed.
The girls went trick or treating with Daddy once he was done with the police report. They seemed to enjoy themselves, but when they walked into the house and saw the blood on Oreo they started crying again. I tried to clean the blood off Oreo, but it's in a bad spot. It's right at the place when his neck bends. He moves away when I try to clean him. Every time he moves his head the blood spreads. He finally stopped bleeding, so at least that's a good thing.
He calmed down after coming into the house. It took a while though. He was really anxious when he first came home. He stopped panting and plopped down into his spot. The girls don't want to leave him alone. They want to hug and smother him with attention. It's hard to tell them to keep away from him, but he needs to stay calm so we can watch him. His behavior is back to normal. We want to observe him overnight before deciding if he needs to go to the vet. If he was still bleeding, of course we would take him to the vet tonight. Since he stopped bleeding and is calm now, we decided to watch him.
Tomorrow we'll follow-up with the animal control officer. We'll try to clean Oreo. After a few days of extra attention he'll be back to normal. I'm not sure I can say the same thing about the girls, though. They were so excited about trick or treating with their friend. I'm so angry at our neighbor for ruining their special evening. We wanted to create a special, fun memory. What we ended up with was a nightmare for Halloween.