Love Bites

Saturday started off great! I finally felt well enough to go for a bike ride (for the past couple of weeks I have been battling a cold, I kept going to school until Thursday night when I got pink eye). The weather was beautiful and the temperature was warm. Trent and I decided after we ran a couple of errands we would go pick Rex up and take him to the dog park. Then we were going to hang out with a friend, having a relaxing afternoon and later go to the mall and eat dinner. We were really looking forward to the dog park. Rex loves to play and it's a great opportunity for him to exercise!

When we pulled up to the dog park there were lots of dogs and people hanging out. I thought this was great because the last time we went it was sort of cold and there were only two basset hounds, and Rex had no interest in playing with them. We walked into the gated area and I saw another couple that lives in our same apartment building. This made the dog park trip even better because there were people we knew that we could talk with!

Rex is now 8 months old and the vet has said that she would like for us to wait until he is a year old to neuter him. Rex just recently (within the past week) has discovered the "birds and the bees." There was a boxer at the dog park that for some reason Rex "liked." The owner and Trent had split the dogs up once and Rex appeared to be more interested in playing with other dogs than trying to flirt with the boxer. About 5 minutes later Rex went back over to the boxer... and that's when it all started.

Trent walked over to get Rex off the boxer. As Trent grabbed Rex the boxer turned around to defend itself and box Rex. Trent and the boxer got to Rex at the same time. This knocked Rex to the ground. All of a sudden a pack of dogs ran over. The boxer started attacking Rex, biting him on the face and puncturing his ear. At that point Trent was knocked over by another dog while he was trying to push the boxer off of Rex. Suddenly a black lab came out of nowhere grabbing Rex's left hind leg and trying to rip his leg off his body. Trent then started yelling at the black lab trying to get him off of Rex. Poor Rex was screaming in pain. If you know Rex you know that he has a high pain tolerance. He never whimpered when he got chipped, got his shots or even got his tail shut in the car door.

I was not standing near the fight because I was talking with the couple from our apartment. I couldn't really see what was going on but when I heard Rex screaming I knew something was wrong (I think I felt like a mom watching her child get hurt!). When I got over to Rex I saw Trent laying on top of Rex trying to keep the other dogs off. Rex was shaking. Trent finally got to his feet and pulled Rex out from the dogs. We started looking Rex over and noticed his ear was bleeding and it looked like his leg was hurt too. We left the dog park without any apologies or words from the lab's owners.

When we got in the car Trent climbed in the back and began giving Rex a better look. Trent saw that Rex's leg wounds were pretty bad and it looked like his ear might be punctured all the way through. When we got home I called Bianca (the dog breeder who is my lifesaver). I told her what happened and texted her pictures of Rex's wounds. She said we should get Rex to the vet because open wounds can get infected and then we would have a huge problem. I called the vet and they told me I had to get Rex there in the next 30 minutes. Trent drove and I sat in the back with Rex as we raced to get to the vet's office.

Some of Rex's leg wounds.

A picture of Rex's bruise above his eye. I couldn't get a good picture of his ear,

it's probably for the best because it was pretty bloody.

Rex was not so worried about getting help, he was more concerned

with finding a way out of the vet's office!

He finally tuckered out while we were waiting.

The vet said it was a good thing we came in because the leg wounds were on Rex's ligament and really deep. She also said that when dogs bite and yank the wounds on the skin level don't look as bad as the wounds under the skin. But the vet said that since he was not limping we probably got lucky. We left the vet with some very strong antibiotics and anti-inflammatory meds.

So much for our relaxing Saturday afternoon and evening! Trent and I were exhausted and what we thought was a short trip to the dog park turned into a long afternoon affair.

Rex was exhausted as well. This was him on the way home!

We are happy to report that Rex is doing very well. He does not seem to be in much pain and he seems happy. He does not like when we touch his ear or his leg to get a better look! From what we can tell his wounds look much better! The patient has been ordered to rest for the next two weeks. This means no playing or running or spending much time outside. This will be the true test of love, Rex will definitely survive this but can Trent and I? :)