Well, it has been a long time since I last wrote – the mom has been slacking on the typing for me. Since it has been so long, I’ll only update on the highlights of this year. In early February, the humans took in a German Shepard from a neglect situation. They tried their best to make that work out, but sadly it had consequences that they never dreamed (more on that in a few).

The past 4-6 weeks have been pretty rough in our house. First pop got hurt (completely tore his Achilles Tendon) when at set of stairs collapsed while he was on them. He had surgery to repair it in late April and has to stay off of it for about 3 months – no weight placed on it. Needless to say, he isn’t able to do much but sit around, no stairs, no walking dogs, no driving, no working on construction projects around the house – pretty much no to anything he would like to be doing.

This leads up to the German Shepard. It was not an easy integration into our pack as she had been neglected, traumatized with shocks from an invisible fence collar and had not had the proper socialization or training needed for that breed of dog. Mom has had years of experience fostering dogs for other rescues, so she wasn’t unfamiliar with introducing new dogs to the household and addressing basic obedience issues. But this dog was way different than any that she had previously dealt with. The humans tried lots of things and finally thought they had found a middle ground. The GSD was never allowed to be outside of her crate or outdoor kennel run unsupervised due to a couple incidents early in her stay. Things had been going smoothly and it seemed like she was starting to settle in. The routines were working well with her and she wanted to be part of the family. Then something went wrong.

On April 25th, mom had gotten home from work, checked on pop since he was basically stuck in the recliner after surgery & then she went to get the GSD out of the outdoor kennel so she could join the rest of us pups for the evening. We ran around the yard for a while & all seemed good.

Mom turned her back for a few minutes to refill a water bowl & then it happened – the GSD attacked my little sister Pixie. It was not good. Pixie weighs about 25 pounds while the GSD weighed around 65 pounds. Mom got the GSD off of Pixie & put the GSD back in the outdoor kennel to keep the rest of us safe. Pixie was rushed to our vet’s office (thank goodness they are on call 24/7 since mom would be arriving after they closed for the day.) We do not know what caused the attack. There wasn’t any toys outside and no food was around.

Mom got to the vet, they took one quick look & said Pixie would need to have surgery and be kept overnight. Mom was a wreck, she felt that she had failed Pixie by failing to keep her safe. And she felt like she had failed the GSD as well – as it was obvious that we could no longer trust the GSD and could no longer keep her. A lot of decisions were going to have to be made, and made soon.

Pixie had a large gash across her back, several puncture wounds around her neck/throat, one of which barely missed her jugular vein and bruising on her abdomen. Below are photos showing the progression of the healing on the gash.

 

Mom discussed the attack with several professionals over the 24 hour period following the attack. She reached out to rescues who specialize in the GSD breed. She gave them the complete history of the dog as she knew it prior to it coming into our home and she told them exactly what had happened since it was with us. She knew it was a long shot for a rescue to take on a dog with this type of history. To cover all her bases, she made an appointment to have the GSD euthanized the Saturday after this attack happened.

Surprisingly, mom did hear back from 2 different rescues and one agreed to accept the GSD into their program on the Friday night that Pixie came home. They said they had recently placed another GSD with very similar issues and they screen all applicants for adoption closely and require training after adoption. Mom signed the GSD over to the rescue the next day. We are hopeful that the GSD will find the right home and can work to become the best dog she possibly can.

We are hoping that the rest of our year goes by smoothly & quietly.