July 5th, 2008 - This post is NOT for the squeamish!!!

As many of you may have already heard we had a little event on Nate's birthday this year. Our yellow lab, "Sunny" attacked our black lab, "Shadow". This attack almost killed Shadow & was very stressful for everyone involved. Shadow had to be rushed to the Animal Emergency Clinic in Jackson as this happened on a Sunday afternoon.

Sunny bit Shadow's leg so hard it was crushed. The pink bandages are covering the external apparatus holding the pins in place. She has 3 pins securing her leg right now. They won't heal as separate bones again, just a bony mass that they are hoping will work well for her. There were so many fragments that her leg had to be stretched a bit to keep it even with her good leg.


She was sedated for our visit, but still very good with the kids. She layed on my lap the whole time & only tried to move when Nate moved out of her line of sight.


The yellow bandages are holding her IV in place. She recieved IV fluids for quite a while & the antibiotics until the day before we picked her up to go home.


She still loves to give kisses. I was so worried that she would not have the same attitude towards us, she seems perfect in that respect.


She really seemed to love the attention. You can see 2 of her many staples from this angle. She has 3 more on the other side & countless stitches that are dark & cannot be seen in the pictures.


The repair job on her leg, really pretty good. We really didn't expect her to even make it through this.


That's Will's finger. He was trying so hard to be gentle. He's used to being able to play with her.


She loves the kids so much.


Shadow didn't want us to leave when it was time to go after our visit. She has a follow up around July 18th where they should remove the staples. I can't even find any of the stitches so I believe they are all gone. She will have the pins & apparatus on her leg for at least another 4 weeks after that. Our vet is hopeful that she will walk & even run again with her leg once it has healed - which just amazes me.

We were at a BBQ for Nate's birthday when this happened. The baby sitters did call, but since Shadow had hidden under the deck we didn't know the extent of the damage until we got home. We are certain that this was an unprovoked attack by the other dog & we were forced to make the decision to take her to the shelter. Once the shelter understood what had happened they let us know that they would be unable to place her in another home. They do believe that she had some pit-bull in her. Sunny was a shelter-dog, just like Shadow; the shelter here in MS where we found her was a no-kill shelter that has since shut down so there was no chance of returning her to that shelter.

We are considering another dog, but will probably go with a breeder the next time so we can evaluate the temper and health of the parents of the puppy we choose.