[yorkietalkjilly]

Carmen, I'm so glad you both are on your way home where you can rest and deal with Luma's injuries and ya'll's meds, etc., at home in peace and quiet where the stress and people-level is far less and much easier to deal with. When you start to think of it - and your mind will replay it a hundred times a day if you let it - just stop, tell yourself "No, that's in the past - it's over." and get busy doing something, anything to get your mind off thinking about it, reliving it.

Unless someone's had a surprise dog attack out of the blue, they can't possibly know how fast and powerfully a large dog can strike before you have time to realize what is happening so you couldn't have prevented it. That's what I kept beating myself up about - why wasn't I faster on the draw, able to do more quicker. Soon, though, after some rational thought, I came to realize that no regular woman just walking, taking her ease, in a quiet, neighborhood setting who isn't hardened to such intense and sudden type frenzy of shocking activity, can ever be fast enough to really make a preventative difference in that type assault. Even carrying an umbrella to open, Mace, etc., can't help in the sudden, unprovoked attack where you don't see the dog until a second or two before. There's no time. And despite however fast you might be, the dog that attacks from out of nowhere is far faster than you are as your brain has to first process what is happening to you and your dog and then evaluate what you should do first - try to get your baby out of the jaws or go after the dog itself and then your brain has to make you do it and your nerves, muscles actually carry it out, all the while the dog is loudly and viciously going hard at your tiny dog and your hands and arms right before your eyes. It all happens so suddenly and is so loud, vicious and horrifying, it literally can drive you into a shocked state and much of what you do is just by rote for a time.

More than likely Luma won't be nearly as affected as you were as dogs usually deal with attacks by other dogs with a fair amount of equilibrium. They don't usually see it as the shocker and loud, bloody horror that we do, and most accept it as the canine way to settle arguments, territorial trespassing, behavioral corrections, etc., seemingly in the same way humans do a flare-up of hot words, after which we usually return to normal. Some dogs are terrorized by an attack but most really aren't and do fine psychologically. And likely, if you are a doglover, you will bounce back far faster than you think you ever could once the immediate post-trauma period is past.

Take it easy and I'm so glad your family and friends are helping you guys out during Christmas. Have the merriest of Christmases possible and follow-up with both of your vital treatment and Animal Control about what they find out about the dog. God bless you guys!