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RIP Ginger
Apr. 29th, 2010 01:21 pmI am getting so sick of people who have dogs and can't control them.
Today, my mother pulled up next to her driveway instead of pulling up under her carport which is in her back yard and is behind a fence, mostly because she knew she'd be going back out this evening for the kiddo's t-ball game. She had her dogs, Wicket and Ginger, with her just like she's done millions of times before. Her dogs, a Lhasa Apso and Miniature Daschund, are good about sticking with her and following her through the gate and into the house. What Mom didn't know was that her neighbor's dogs had managed to get out of their fence.
I'll spare the details, but those dogs (German Sheperds according to Mom, but I'm not 100% on that) came over and attacked Ginger, the Miniature Daschund. She couldn't get to her before they carried her off, and by the time she did get to them, it was too late.
Ginger was 13/14 years old, nearly blind, and while she was obviously slowing down, she was still full of life. What's worse is that she was my late grandmother's dog and when she died of cancer, Mom took over care of Ginger. Those dogs mean the world to my mother, and Ginger was just one more connection to her own mother so this loss is really hard. My aunt is probably a mess too since she would have taken Ginger if not for her full house of dogs, and my uncles will likely be hurt because they associated Ginger with my grandmother too. I'm pretty much not dealing because I'm just not able to process much beyond anger at the moment, and I have no idea how the kiddo will take it. He wasn't close to her so maybe he'll be all right about it, I don't know.
As for the neighbor, he offered my mother money, which she refused because, well, how the fuck do you quantify the years we've had Ginger in our lives? We'd seen the dogs loose a few months ago, an admittedly first-time occurence as far as I knew, and had called him to let him know and that was when I learned he apparently has shock collars on them because "they won't listen to [him] otherwise." I wasn't impressed to learn that at the time, and had I known they were apparently aggressive to smaller animals/dogs, I might have been a lot more worried. I don't know if this is the first time those dogs have attacked another, but at this point I don't really care. He knew they weren't controllable and he didn't do anything more to rectify it despite them getting loose before. I wish Mom would call the police since the man can be fined where he is for his dogs getting loose (she lives in the town limits, so they are a lot stricter than they are for my neck of the woods), but she's too upset to really know what to do. I suppose there's a part of me happy that the other neighbor didn't have her small children outside playing because what if they went after them, or if they saw the attack? Mom had to watch as it is and I've got a lot of grisly details I'm sparing. Children wouldn't need to see that, and a dog attack is not something you forget.
My evening will be spent consoling Mom and...I'm not sure what else. Just, if you're a dog owner or are thinking of becoming one, you don't have to enroll your pets in obedience classes, I swear. But you do need to know your dogs, know how they are around strangers and other animals, and if you can't find that out, then keep track of them and watch them when you're outside. If you notice aggression or that they aren't heeding your commands, please talk to your vet or to someone who knows how to train dogs as soon as you know there is a problem. And if that person tells you to just get a shock collar or something similar, get a second opinion. Also, please spay or neuter your pets, preferably before they're a year old. These dogs were kept in a fenced-in yard and were never expected to escape, but today they did and it wasn't the owner who paid the price for the mistake, it as my mother. If you click on the tag "pets: gwen," you'll see that this isn't the first time I've had to deal with an uncontrolled dog killing a beloved pet.
Today, my mother pulled up next to her driveway instead of pulling up under her carport which is in her back yard and is behind a fence, mostly because she knew she'd be going back out this evening for the kiddo's t-ball game. She had her dogs, Wicket and Ginger, with her just like she's done millions of times before. Her dogs, a Lhasa Apso and Miniature Daschund, are good about sticking with her and following her through the gate and into the house. What Mom didn't know was that her neighbor's dogs had managed to get out of their fence.
I'll spare the details, but those dogs (German Sheperds according to Mom, but I'm not 100% on that) came over and attacked Ginger, the Miniature Daschund. She couldn't get to her before they carried her off, and by the time she did get to them, it was too late.
Ginger was 13/14 years old, nearly blind, and while she was obviously slowing down, she was still full of life. What's worse is that she was my late grandmother's dog and when she died of cancer, Mom took over care of Ginger. Those dogs mean the world to my mother, and Ginger was just one more connection to her own mother so this loss is really hard. My aunt is probably a mess too since she would have taken Ginger if not for her full house of dogs, and my uncles will likely be hurt because they associated Ginger with my grandmother too. I'm pretty much not dealing because I'm just not able to process much beyond anger at the moment, and I have no idea how the kiddo will take it. He wasn't close to her so maybe he'll be all right about it, I don't know.
As for the neighbor, he offered my mother money, which she refused because, well, how the fuck do you quantify the years we've had Ginger in our lives? We'd seen the dogs loose a few months ago, an admittedly first-time occurence as far as I knew, and had called him to let him know and that was when I learned he apparently has shock collars on them because "they won't listen to [him] otherwise." I wasn't impressed to learn that at the time, and had I known they were apparently aggressive to smaller animals/dogs, I might have been a lot more worried. I don't know if this is the first time those dogs have attacked another, but at this point I don't really care. He knew they weren't controllable and he didn't do anything more to rectify it despite them getting loose before. I wish Mom would call the police since the man can be fined where he is for his dogs getting loose (she lives in the town limits, so they are a lot stricter than they are for my neck of the woods), but she's too upset to really know what to do. I suppose there's a part of me happy that the other neighbor didn't have her small children outside playing because what if they went after them, or if they saw the attack? Mom had to watch as it is and I've got a lot of grisly details I'm sparing. Children wouldn't need to see that, and a dog attack is not something you forget.
My evening will be spent consoling Mom and...I'm not sure what else. Just, if you're a dog owner or are thinking of becoming one, you don't have to enroll your pets in obedience classes, I swear. But you do need to know your dogs, know how they are around strangers and other animals, and if you can't find that out, then keep track of them and watch them when you're outside. If you notice aggression or that they aren't heeding your commands, please talk to your vet or to someone who knows how to train dogs as soon as you know there is a problem. And if that person tells you to just get a shock collar or something similar, get a second opinion. Also, please spay or neuter your pets, preferably before they're a year old. These dogs were kept in a fenced-in yard and were never expected to escape, but today they did and it wasn't the owner who paid the price for the mistake, it as my mother. If you click on the tag "pets: gwen," you'll see that this isn't the first time I've had to deal with an uncontrolled dog killing a beloved pet.
