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Originally Posted by canana  Omigoodness. This story was so hard to read!! Poor lil Jilly....I cannot begin to imagine! How awful... |
It was horrific but even though she seized all the way home, her neck stiff with rigor with her head lying almost on her back, frothing at the mouth, I was certain she was dying as we made our way the 3 blocks back home, the vet found she'd somehow survived the vicious attack fairly well for such a huge size differential, with six deep lacerations, torso/internal organ bruising & swelling. After emergency surgery, she rehabbed well. Thankfully our city AC seized, rabies-quarantined the attacker at a vet clinic - he was cleared, thankfully, but I was very glad Jilly was current on her vax.
And you know, after six weeks of rest and rehab, the vet allowed her to finally walk up and down the block rather than part of the block. I steeled myself not to feed any fear reaction she showed other dogs we might encounter and had prepared a plan for immediately redirecting her focus if we did. I had to work so hard to prepare myself to not show any worry or fear myself though I was worried for how she might react.
Guess I hid my anxiety well enough because as we reached the end of the block and the grumpy GSD who lived in the yard there, Jilly, looking a bit like Frankenstein's monster with healing scars, stitch marks visibly on her back and torso, went toe-to-toe with the giant shepherd dog through the Cox fence, a huge barkfest with bared teeth and raised hackles! Thankfully, she never showed an ounce of fear of dogs or PTSD-type reaction to that dog attack. Her protective instinct and courage remained intact but I was an ever-vigilant walker after that, always carrying an auto-open umbrella which whooshes suddenly open to a huge, black circle to dissuade any dogs that gave us any warning of aggression, though it was useless preventing any attack one never saw coming.