Another dog fight :(

Ugh. It happened Saturday morning between Jaiden and Harley. I won't go into details because I'm trying to forget them (I just can't get the images/sounds/feelings of ripping skin out of my head... I literally felt like I was going crazy yesterday), but it was pretty bad. All three dogs were really wound up, and I should have known something was bound to happen. Anyway, Harley had a few cuts, but nothing too bad. Jaiden had two big lacerations on his leg, and a couple of puncture wounds on his neck and chest. I took him to the vet, and they kept him all day. I was pretty miserable--I'm so used to having him around that whenever I come home, I automatically look up to see if he's in the window. I felt so incredibly guilty all day. Anyway, they put him under, shaved the cuts, and sutured him up. When I picked him up, he was pretty loopy--not looking me in the eye, staggering, etc. He fought sleep for about an hour, and finally gave in, passing out for about three hours in his "spot" by the window. This morning, his leg was pretty swollen, so I called the vet and they said it was normal. I keep having to re-wrap his leg because it keeps swelling more. He's in good spirits today. Here are a couple of pics:

Note Michael's nasty wrist and the bloody shorts (shudder):

The whole thing was pretty traumatic for Michael and me. Not to mention the dogs. Even Molly tried to get in on it, but I think she was more or less just worried. Molly's a lover, not a fighter. ;) Needless to say, Michael and I agree that I shouldn't bring Jaiden over again. :( Which really sucks, because that means I can't really spend more than a few hours over at his place, and vice versa. During the fight, I remember being bit, and it should have hurt like hell, but I was so full of adrenaline that I didn't give it a second thought. At the time, I would have shoved my entire hand in their mouths if I'd had the chance to keep them from biting each other. Same with Michael--he had two pretty serious bites, but he doesn't even remember which dog did it, nor did he realize at the time that he had been bit. He ended up having to go to the emergency room because they were bleeding rather profusely.

The vet made me feel a little better about the whole thing. She told me about a pair of dogs that had grown up together--one day, someone just snapped, and they had a pretty serious dog fight. The dogs don't realize that fighting is "wrong"--they're just acting on instinct. The owners ended up building a chain link separation fence so that they could at least see each other, but never be together.

Michael told me over lunch that if it ever happened again (which it won't happen between Jaiden/Harley because we can't risk them being together), that I need to just stay away because he felt like he was not only trying to get the dogs apart, but that he was trying to keep me safe, too (aww). I just can't not help, so I'm not making any promises, Mikey. ;) I was reading that if a dog fight ensues, to use water to break them up. I have a seriously hard time believing that when a dog is so focused on maiming/killing another, water is going to stop it. Maybe a direct spray in the face, but they move SO FAST.

Anyway. Enough of that.

A girl named Cynthia and I set up a Halloween pub crawl bike ride for Friday night. We didn't have many people show up, but we (or at least I) had a blast anyway. At one point, Michael went off to who knew where, and we were standing around waiting for him. When he came back, he opened a sack and gave us each a 2 oz. sample of Maker's Mark. HA! That really got the night going. For me, anyway. It gave me the hiccups for a solid hour, too. You can't fake sobriety when you have the hiccups, lol. So anyway, we hit three bars and called it a night.