Sad Bassett

My dog was bit by another dog on Saturday.  Cooper ventured into a neighbor's yard when he caught whiff of some new scent.  To give some context, our yard borders, along with several other houses, a quad (for lack of a better word).  None of the yards are fenced and the other neighbors with dogs let their dogs roam free.  Cooper decided he also wanted to be an untethered dog.

This one house has 2 dogs: a lab and a boxer mix.  We were in their yard when the owner came out to say hello and meet Cooper.  His wife let their dogs out and he said that his lab is sometimes aggressive around new dogs.  Sure enough - she came charging out and grabbed Cooper by the ear.  We separated the dogs and thought all was well.

Later on we discovered the inside of Cooper's ear was punctured and was causing him pain.  We've spent the last couple days keeping the wounds clean with hydrogen peroxide and Neosporin.  The one is healing.  The other wound - an inch long scrape - looked pretty gross this morning.  I'm taking him to the vet this afternoon and hoping that it hasn't gotten terribly worse today.

So I lied in a previous post about not being anxious.  This whole situation is causing me great anxiety.  Obviously the neighbors know their dog is aggressive and yet they let her outside unattended.  What if she decides to come into our yard while Cooper is helplessly tethered?  I haven't told the neighbors about the wounds because I don't want to start something.  But I'm worried about my helpless, submissive dog.

As much as I profess to believe that it's best to just be up front with people, I've become fairly sensitive about saying much of anything that will cause conflict.  I'm tired of people thinking I'm mean or inflexible or judgmental or blunt or whatever else I've been criticized for in recent years, nor do I want to be the new neighbor who comes in guns blazing. 

I need to find a way to let this go, but I'm having a hard time...

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