[Petbunny] OT: and pretty graphic

[Ken Albin]

Hi all,

Sorry if I have missed any birthdays or other major events. I have tried 
to keep up as much as possible this week but as those of you on Facebook 
know we have had a hectic time here. Just to update everyone and let you 
know I am still here:

Last Saturday the wife Karen helped out at the cat adoptions for our 
local group. While there she was told about a cat who was found down the 
street from us. It was a purebred and obviously had been well looked 
after. When she got home Karen went next door to ask the neighbors if 
they knew of anyone in the area who was missing a cat. The neighbors 
have a large mixed breed dog they normally keep in an invisible fence. 
For some reason they had let the dog out to run around in the yard just 
before Karen went over. The dog attacked Karen, ripping her upper arm 
open. She was losing a lot of blood and there was missing flesh so I 
rushed her to the emergency room. They cleaned it all out, gave a 
tetanus shot and antibiotic, took x-rays, and then sewed up most of it. 
They left it all open a little do it would drain and bandaged her up. 
Monday she went to our regular doctor. He cut the old stitches out and 
sewed her up completely. She took the week off to rest and recuperate. 
There has been no infection but a lot of bruising and swelling. The 
stitches come out next week and the doctor said she would have some bad 
scars when it finishes healing up in a month or so. Luckily there was no 
nerve damage and she should be able to use the arm fine. So that's why I 
have been absent so much. I have been helping her around the house a lot 
this week.

Before anyone asks, we both told the neighbors we did not want the dog 
euthanized as they wanted to do. The dog was probably just protecting 
its home in its own mind. We are also not going to sue the neighbors. 
They are both very nice people and were extremely distraught over the 
incident. I do think that they are ignorant when it comes to socializing 
animals and probably shouldn't have adopted this type of dog. They mean 
well and give vet care and a home to this animal who they adopted from 
the pound when they found out it was scheduled to be killed. Like so 
many people they don't really treat their animals like family members. 
As a result this dog has not be acclimated to strangers the way he 
should have been. Pets to people like them are thought of more as 
property to be taken care of rather than family members. This is a 
mindset that I do not share but I do understand it after seeing so many 
others think this way. That to me is the real failing here. OK, soapbox 
speech ended. Karen is recovering slowly but ok and she will probably be 
fine in time. I told her that next time she should call before going 
over there.

I was hesitant to say anything about it here because I did not want the 
PB folk to think I was fishing for sympathy but several PB people have 
been emailing me privately wondering where I was lately so I finally 
broke down and wrote this to explain.

Prince Dirk and Ken Albin