It Happened at the Dog Park
Well, that was unpleasant.
Since we didn't go yesterday, I decided to take Dumb and Dumber to the dog park today for some good exercise and long naps afterwards. That it is cooler outside than it has been all week didn't hurt - Rufus loves cooler weather more than I do.
Everything was going normally. We walked down one path, followed the creek, stopping at the usual spots so Rufus could jump in the water and cool off, until we arrived at the small lagoon-thing. I don't know what else to call it. The creek pools and then a small section breaks out and rejoins to the larger creek. At one point it was a called a pond, but to me it looks more like a pool of water. Regardless, we were there when a park ranger came walking buy with a brown Australian Shepherd or Mini Aussie. He was looking for it's owner which I thought was extremely nice of him since most rangers would have just taken the dog to a shelter and called it a day.
Rufus, Charlie and I walked further down the stream finally stopping at a beach-like area where I started talking to a girl. She was wearing a sweatshirt that said "Naperville" on it and I asked if she was referencing Naperville, Illinois. She was and I told her my ex-girlfriend came from there. We then chatted about a number of things, including dog behavior, local area dog parks and tossed the occasional joke around. (She had an excellent sense of humor by the way)
Other dogs were around us: a ten year old rottweiler, a Doberman Pinscher, a greyhound (or mix, since it's was more "stocky" than your typical greyhound and a few others, all accompanied by their people. The greyhound, I recalled from earlier in our walk, had a beautiful collar the people must have spent a good deal of money on and it seemed young, just trying to get anyone at all to play with it. It ran hoping one of the other dogs would give chase, but few did.
Finally, the girls' dog, a rottweiller lab mix that was smaller than Rufus, chased the greyhound and quickly other dogs joined in the chase. It was fun watching the greyhound run, easily outdistancing the other dogs, but circling back around so they stayed interested in chasing him.
At one point the greyhound, running full speed, started heading back towards us mere humans when another dog, a brown and black Chow looking dog with long brown fur with black highlights that was not partaking in the chase. Instead, it was walking around on it's own, in the middle of crossing the stream back towards the humans as well when it stepped in front of the greyhound, completely oblivious to the dog about to barrel down on him.
Being a greyhound, and not known for their agility skills, it couldn't avoid the chow-like dog and ended up hitting it: hard. But that didn't stop the greyhound who's momentum kept him going straight. Within just a couple of seconds the greyhound had reached the rock divider between the stream and the sandy area where the humans were and someone shouted, "Oh my god, that dog has a giant cut!"
I spun to watch the dog and didn't see a cut and at the same time the dog let out a giant wail. When it turned it was clearly visible: a giant flap of skin hanging off the side of the dog. It was easily the size of a child or a woman's hand, the pink muscle underneath plain to see. Blood began welling as the other dogs, still giving chase, caught up with it. The dog's humans ran to it, the man taking off his shirt to use as a wrap or a press, but the other dogs were kicking up so much sand and the greyhound kept moving so not to be touched. Finally the man said, "The shirt's too sandy."
I informed them that the closest animal clinic was across the street in a hidden strip mall, but they still had a half mile or more walk back to their car. Unfortunately for circumstances like this, the dog park is huge and the parking lot was far from where we were.
A couple of people and I stayed around and talked about the incident, all of us agreeing it was just a accident of circumstance. We all wished the greyhound well and then I left to finish our walk.
Back in the parking lot I saw the ranger that had been looking for the Aussie's owner. I asked him if he found the owners and he indicated he did, that they were on the north end of the park looking for their dog. You have to understand, the north end is roughly a mile away. This is a large dog park. I then asked him if the people with the greyhound were able to make it to a vet. The ranger asked me if I saw what happened and I told him I saw the whole thing. I was watching the dogs run when the greyhound slammed into the the other dog. It was a giant accident, I offered. He asked me a few questions to clarify my story with the one he already heard, Describe the dog that was injured, What was the color of the dog it hit, Which dog had the injury. When I'd satisfied his questions he asked if I'd be willing to make a statement.
From what I overheard, the woman who had the brown and black chow-like dog was claiming the greyhound injured her dog. I told the ranger it was quite possible that it was injured as the greyhound was moving pretty fast when it hit the other dog. Like athletes that run into each other, it happens and sometimes one or more walk away with a sprain or a concussion or something.
When asked about the cut on the greyhound-type dog I admitted it could have simply been a part of the collision. "Maybe the dog had something on it's collar," I suggested, showing a clip on Charlie's collar for attaching different accessories. Or maybe in the collision it grazed a tooth or a toenail. Or, perhaps when it stumbled after the hit the greyhound scraped a rock in the sand. "There are a dozen ways it could have played out," I said.
Since we didn't go yesterday, I decided to take Dumb and Dumber to the dog park today for some good exercise and long naps afterwards. That it is cooler outside than it has been all week didn't hurt - Rufus loves cooler weather more than I do.
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| Dummies |
Everything was going normally. We walked down one path, followed the creek, stopping at the usual spots so Rufus could jump in the water and cool off, until we arrived at the small lagoon-thing. I don't know what else to call it. The creek pools and then a small section breaks out and rejoins to the larger creek. At one point it was a called a pond, but to me it looks more like a pool of water. Regardless, we were there when a park ranger came walking buy with a brown Australian Shepherd or Mini Aussie. He was looking for it's owner which I thought was extremely nice of him since most rangers would have just taken the dog to a shelter and called it a day.
 |
| Rufus at First Water |
Rufus, Charlie and I walked further down the stream finally stopping at a beach-like area where I started talking to a girl. She was wearing a sweatshirt that said "Naperville" on it and I asked if she was referencing Naperville, Illinois. She was and I told her my ex-girlfriend came from there. We then chatted about a number of things, including dog behavior, local area dog parks and tossed the occasional joke around. (She had an excellent sense of humor by the way)
Other dogs were around us: a ten year old rottweiler, a Doberman Pinscher, a greyhound (or mix, since it's was more "stocky" than your typical greyhound and a few others, all accompanied by their people. The greyhound, I recalled from earlier in our walk, had a beautiful collar the people must have spent a good deal of money on and it seemed young, just trying to get anyone at all to play with it. It ran hoping one of the other dogs would give chase, but few did.
Finally, the girls' dog, a rottweiller lab mix that was smaller than Rufus, chased the greyhound and quickly other dogs joined in the chase. It was fun watching the greyhound run, easily outdistancing the other dogs, but circling back around so they stayed interested in chasing him.
At one point the greyhound, running full speed, started heading back towards us mere humans when another dog, a brown and black Chow looking dog with long brown fur with black highlights that was not partaking in the chase. Instead, it was walking around on it's own, in the middle of crossing the stream back towards the humans as well when it stepped in front of the greyhound, completely oblivious to the dog about to barrel down on him.
Being a greyhound, and not known for their agility skills, it couldn't avoid the chow-like dog and ended up hitting it: hard. But that didn't stop the greyhound who's momentum kept him going straight. Within just a couple of seconds the greyhound had reached the rock divider between the stream and the sandy area where the humans were and someone shouted, "Oh my god, that dog has a giant cut!"
I spun to watch the dog and didn't see a cut and at the same time the dog let out a giant wail. When it turned it was clearly visible: a giant flap of skin hanging off the side of the dog. It was easily the size of a child or a woman's hand, the pink muscle underneath plain to see. Blood began welling as the other dogs, still giving chase, caught up with it. The dog's humans ran to it, the man taking off his shirt to use as a wrap or a press, but the other dogs were kicking up so much sand and the greyhound kept moving so not to be touched. Finally the man said, "The shirt's too sandy."
I informed them that the closest animal clinic was across the street in a hidden strip mall, but they still had a half mile or more walk back to their car. Unfortunately for circumstances like this, the dog park is huge and the parking lot was far from where we were.
A couple of people and I stayed around and talked about the incident, all of us agreeing it was just a accident of circumstance. We all wished the greyhound well and then I left to finish our walk.
Back in the parking lot I saw the ranger that had been looking for the Aussie's owner. I asked him if he found the owners and he indicated he did, that they were on the north end of the park looking for their dog. You have to understand, the north end is roughly a mile away. This is a large dog park. I then asked him if the people with the greyhound were able to make it to a vet. The ranger asked me if I saw what happened and I told him I saw the whole thing. I was watching the dogs run when the greyhound slammed into the the other dog. It was a giant accident, I offered. He asked me a few questions to clarify my story with the one he already heard, Describe the dog that was injured, What was the color of the dog it hit, Which dog had the injury. When I'd satisfied his questions he asked if I'd be willing to make a statement.
 |
| Official Statement |
From what I overheard, the woman who had the brown and black chow-like dog was claiming the greyhound injured her dog. I told the ranger it was quite possible that it was injured as the greyhound was moving pretty fast when it hit the other dog. Like athletes that run into each other, it happens and sometimes one or more walk away with a sprain or a concussion or something.
When asked about the cut on the greyhound-type dog I admitted it could have simply been a part of the collision. "Maybe the dog had something on it's collar," I suggested, showing a clip on Charlie's collar for attaching different accessories. Or maybe in the collision it grazed a tooth or a toenail. Or, perhaps when it stumbled after the hit the greyhound scraped a rock in the sand. "There are a dozen ways it could have played out," I said.
UPDATE (Oct 22, 2014):
I was the dog park again today. The same lady who had the dog that was hit was there. I happened upon her telling someone of the incident described above. Surprisingly she got the facts, as I remember them, correct. She did embellish a little here and there, but for the most part, she wasn't trying to change to the story to her favor. Specifically she said the greyhound's wound was 8" to 10" and I can mast assuredly claim it was not. Not unless the man who owned the dog had ten in hands. The wound was slightly smaller than his hand, and I'd have to assume, my hand. As I told one guy while holding up my hand, "I'd love to be able to tell women this is ten inches, but let's be fair, it's not."
She also said her dog, the one that was hit by the greyhound, had just recovered from another injury and the greyhound hitting it didn't help very much. She blamed the greyhound's owner for not having more control over his dog. That's when I had to butt in. I explained to the lady that the dog was just running, it was being chased by other dogs, as some dogs love to play. Some are the chasers and some are the chasees. It just works like that. The dog was running, her dog was in the way and an accident ensued. It was no one's fault. That's when she claimed the greyhound was out of control that it was aggressive and harassing other dogs. I just shook my head and explained she was being very subjective. Some people think any dog playing or wrestling is too aggressive while others think it's not too aggressive until blood is spurting everywhere. I saw a lady once who wouldn't let her dog play with anyone because, as she put it, 'all dogs are aggressive.' Hell, my friend's dad won't his little dog play with any other dogs because all dogs are aggressive.
And like all people who can't think outside of their box she just told me she didn't come to the dog park to argue and walked on, leaving me to talk with the guy she was telling the story to. That's when I told the ten inch hand story.
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