During my short blog sabbatical there was an incident involving my little dog and a big nasty Doberman. We had been taking the dogs semi-regularly to the dog park and despite the fact that the little dog is anti-social and the bigger dog is a big chicken they both get so excited when they know we are going to the park. So one bright Saturday morning we went to breakfast at Molly's Super in Upland where not only do they allow dogs on their patio, they cater to them with a for-dogs-only menu and a little play area. At the next table was a couple who own Skipper - the only dog our Tramp has ever played with at the dog park. We got to talking and the told us they were going to the Upland dog park just for a change of scenery. Sounded good so we decided to join them.
We get there and there's a teeny tiny little space for small/shy dogs and a HUGE area for the bigger/ more social dogs. Never having had a problem with entering the "big dog" area at our normal park and seeing that there were a bunch of little dogs roaming that area I ignored my initial thought to go to the small dog area first.
Normally, Jasper stands his ground when any dog, big or small, comes sniffing around but something spooked him and he took off running not 30 seconds after we entered the park. Maybe it was the unfamiliar surroundings or maybe it was the unfamiliar dogs, I don't know. Whatever it was it sent him into a panic and he ended up getting rolled by a couple of big dogs. This would have been fine, he would have been traumatized for a few minutes but he would have shaken it off.
The trouble came in the form of Foxy, a HUGE Doberman Pinscher who picked Jasper up and shook him like he was a little squeaky toy. She tried to go for a second round with him but didn't get a chance as my sister and I and a bunch of other owners were all over her at that point. Unfortunately, none of the other owners was Foxy's owner. She chose to sit back and watch the whole episode from a distance. Then not only did she brush it off as if this was just the normal Saturday morning hi jinx at the dog park she went back to her group of friends loudly proclaiming that things like this wouldn't happen if the small dog (my small dog) had been in the small dog area where he belonged.
And as true as that statement is I'm still irked 3 weeks later that she didn't have the decency to apologize for what happened or to ask if Jasper was ok. We left the park as soon as I saw blood and rushed him to the vet who, thankfully, told me nothing major was punctured and no bones were broken but he needed to have surgery for the one puncture wound that he did have. So that Saturday was spent first at our normal vet then at the emergency pet clinic after our vet closed so he could be under observation while waking up from the anesthetic. Here's what he looked like when we brought him home that night...
Needless to say, I was a total basket case the whole day but he came through like a champ and now, three weeks later is completely back to normal...no more cone, no more stitches He's not even jumping every time he sees Tramp (who is black like Foxy) out of the corner of his eye. He does need a trip to the groomer cuz his haircut keeps bringing looks from people like "You crazy lady, why would you cut your dogs fur like that?!"
I haven't taken any pictures of him since that one so let me leave you with this one, a much happier pic of my Bubby...
