Have you ever had scary moment?

***Graphic and sad...just thought I would warn...but I promise a happy ending**

I was explaining in another thread that Kotton is afraid of heights because of an accident and it got me thinking about my reaction to her accident and how others would have reacted; or if anyone else has ever had a scary moment with their fur-kid. Most people think I am crazy for the way I treat Kotton like my child, but in essence she is my child. I have never had kids and never will, she needs my support and assistance to survive (and I need hers just as much!), and most of the time she is the only one I have to lean on as family...so when this incident happened I honestly felt like my heart was ripped out and didn't know what I would do from then on...

An ex and I were in a disagreement about something or other and I asked her to go get Kotton from outside and bring her in. After about 5 minutes I heard a dull thud from the kitchen and I heard her say "Oh Shit!" Of course I went running around the corner and the sight that met my eyes is forever etched in my head. Kotton was laid out on the floor, one eye out of socket and slightly twitching for just a moment until she just stopped. The ex proclaimed that Kotton jumped out of her arms and landed on her head...Kotton is the type of Chi that has the soft spot..and I lost it. I fell to the floor picked her up and stood and when I realized she wasn't moving I fell to the floor again and just lost it. The ex scooped up Kotton and went outside while I went to the bathroom to get sick.

Luckily this story has an amazing ending. As I was in the bathroom the ex screamed, "She's alive, her eye is open!" so we scooped her up put her in a blanket and rushed her to the emergency room. The whole way there she stared into my eyes as I talked to her and comforted her and told her that I would NEVER let anything happen again if she promised to come back to me, that I could not live without her. When we got to the vet I had to run out because I couldn't handle the screaming from her as she was examined. Amazingly by the time we got her to the vet she was moving and semi-alert and even stood on her own four feet when I put her on the table. She was examined, proclaimed no broken bones (she fell from 6 feet!) and her eye would be ok, he fixed it. I was to take her home and not let her jump up or down for a week. Needless to say her feet barely touched the ground the entire time. I have been so protective of her ever since and no one is allowed to hold her other than me and my girlfriend.

I cannot begin to imagine how I could have handled it if it were not a happy ending. So today there is no apparent damage (although I do remind her at times she is "special" because she was dropped on her head as a baby LOL). She did become even more glued to me after but hey I am ok with that!! I cannot believe she was spared without so much as a broken bone, she weighed 2 1/2 pounds at the time and fell about 6 feet. Oh and the friend...no longer in my life.

Have you had any close calls or bad things happen with your fur kids? How did you get through?

 

That was a little bit disturbing. I am so glad that everything ended up okay. I can understand why you and your dog are attached to each other.

I have had many scary moments with my dogs. Misha has provided me with a few scary moments. There was the day my Dad had emergency surgery (he didn't survive it--he died 3 days later)) and Misha had an allergic reaction the same day. After waiting for word on my Dad, getting him through surgery, I ended up at the emergency vet at 11pm at night because Misha had swelled from head to toe.

Another scary time was right after my Dad's death. I was somewhat distracted for a few days and not really thinking.. I went to close the sliding glass door and Misha had stuck her head in between just as I slammed it. She screamed and I may have too. I was horrified at what I had done. She was only 6 lbs at the time and was no match for the door.

Thankfully, I did not hurt her. She only ended up a little banged up and had no lasting scars from the impact. I could have broken her jaw or killed her. It really shook me up for some time.

 

Awww poor Misha...our dogs are surely blessed that is for sure! I am sorry about your dad But so happy that Misha was there to see you through it and that she came out of it without any scars! Is she afraid of the door at all?

 

Golly, those stories were so sad. I had tears for both of you.
I have quite a few but I will try and keep them short.
Okie ( from Muskogee) was only given to me not long before. I was off on a forest/bush walk on my property with friends and Okie stayed behind with some other friends because she was weaning puppies. She was bitten on the nose by a poisonous snake and died before I got back from the walk. I felt so helpless that I couldn't do anything.
Arrow was a puppy of Okie's which I decided to keep. I left my property to pick apples in a nearby village. The orchard provided a small pickers house to live in for the duration. It had no front fence but it was a very quiet country road. I had gotten home from work and let him out briefly from the back of the house. I heard a car go by while I was changing and my heart sank.Straight away I knew he was run over.I ran to the front and picked him up. There was no sign of any car and I carried him inside. On the radio Song for Guy by Elton John was playing as I held my dear Arrow in my arms. I cried all weekend. It was Easter and it also rained all weekend. That song still brings tears after 30 years.
Pia was about ten years old when we got Tacca. I was driving our large station wagon home from town with the two kids into our property and Pia and Tacca were there to greet us. They were in front of the vehicle before I started to reverse to park. As I was reversing there was a thump and I just about died as I knew straight away that I had reversed over a dog. It was Pia. I think Tacca being a pup was always jumping all over Pia all the time and this distracted her. She died there and then after a few minutes. It was devastating. These days I never reverse anywhere with out 100% knowing what's behind me. A tough lesson learnt. RIP Pia. You were beautiful.

Tacca was a little overweight and eventually got diabetes. She needed insulin twice a day.Having the drug could make her a bit hypers. One day while I was chopping wood I thought I should tie her up near me so she wouldn't go loopy and run off. She some how tugged at the lead and Tacca and the lead went off into the dense bush where I live. In the past I have accidentally strangled a baby goat when it ran off with a lead still attached and it jumped over a large fallen log. I thought the worst for Tacca, so my wife and I had to search in every direction looking for her. She was so hard to find and it took many hours. Her lead had tangled around a small tree and she was alive but was blind. Panicking caused her to go blind and the diabetes was the real cause of course.Two years later she had a stroke. We would tie her to a peg on the ground so she could walk. She could only walk like this and in circles. It was so sad to watch her so we ended up taking her to the vet to be put her to sleep.

Mishka is my joy and is like a fur-kid daughter as my other darling daughter has left home to work in the big city.
That's my fur-kid Mishka on the left and that's my other daughter Amyris on the right

 

Scary moments? Yes, a few times. Nothing earth-shaking, though.

Like the times when Benjamas decided to go for a walk on her own. Along a busy street. Normally she knew how to cross roads. Somehow I got the feeling that she understood traffic lights.

However there was this one time, when she went down the road and met a big dog. A big aggressive dog. Benjamas was just a small Poodle. She turned back immediately. The big dog came after her. She saw me across the road. She ran right across the traffic. And leaped into my arms. I put her down after I picked up my heart from the ground.

 

Yes, I do have those moments too.
An example is when someone left our gate open and our two dogs are running like crazy outside in a busy road (as we live near a road). I was like shouting and making them go in the side and not to play with the running vehicles.

 

I had another literally life and death scary moment involving Candy, my Bangkeaw. Candy is a very possessive dog and will not tolerate any dog coming near to me, especially if it's another Bangkeaw. Also Bangkeaws always go for the throat when they fight.

My friend asked me to look after his Bangkeaw because he had to go away for a few days on some very urgent business. I had to accept the task although I didn't relish it. At that time I had no idea that Bangkeaws were that ferocious.

So I took the new dog home to meet Candy. In a flash, Candy had her jaws clamped over the throat of the new dog. If Candy were a strange dog, I would have probably hit it over the head with a big stick but this was Candy, my constant companion.

I did the only thing possible. I put both hands on her muzzle and inserted my fingers into her mouth to pry her jaws open. This was a really scary moment because Candy had very sharp and strong teeth. I had actually seen her chewing through her steel chain. If she bit down on my fingers, they would be severed for sure. If I hesitated, the other dog would be dead because the next thing that a Bangkeaw did after clamping its jaws on the target was to jerk away, slashing through skin and flesh.

Both hands on the muzzle. Fingers inserted into the mouth. Pull jaws apart. The other dog was free. Now I had a new problem. The other dog, being a Bangkeaw, too, never thought of running away. It lunged at Candy. Immediately I grabbed Candy by her ruff and hoisted her above my head, out of harm's way.

It was a good thing that Candy was afraid of heights. She didn't struggle to get out of my hands. So I was able to take Candy inside the second gate in my house before attending to the other dog. Luckily it was just lightly scratched. I think Bangkeaws must have very tough skins.

 

I have never heard of a Bangkeaw before, do you have a picture? What exactly are they?

Your encounter sounds frightening! I always have a fear when dogs fight and have a hard time getting in between, even with my tiny babies!

 

Scary stories!

One of my worst moments came a few weeks after moving to a new home. The plot is fully enclosed with walls in some areas and fencing in others so I assumed that Milly (who should have been named Houdini) would be safe in the garden.

I was having a busy day, hadn't seen much of Millie, but guessed she was sleeping somewhere. While I was washing up at the sink, I noticed her walk in the door, I just greeted her and carried on. It was half an hour or so later that I started to wonder where she was. A search of the house found her cowering under a bed. I coaxed her out and found that she had a huge graze along her tummy and various bleeding cuts.

It turned out that she had been escaping from the garden to go for a wander without me knowing. She was managing to jump quite a high wall and going out through a neighbours unfenced garden. The neighbour had seen this but hadn't told me it was happening.

Poor Millie had been hot by a car half a kilometer away on a very busy road and had managed to get herself all the way home and back over the wall. I still feel sick when I think about it.

I took her straight to the vet of course who cleaned her up and said there was nothing to be done, but hope that she hadn't sustained any internal injuries and that the next 24 hours would be critical. Luckily she survived and the wall was made higher.

 

Argon, I am sorry for your losses. It is hard to lose a dog so suddenly.

Pugskjj, Misha was fine after the incident. However, when I moved in with my mom she had several weeks of being afraid of the sliding screen door molding. She ran out one day, tripped on it, and landed hard on the bricks. For two weeks, she was scared to go out the door. When she did, she would be overly dramatic by going all the way to the carpet at the end of the kitchen, then making a running, flying leap out the door. It was so funny. She got over it eventually.

Victor, dog fights are so scary. I've had to break up a couple between my sister's and brother's dogs over food. Nothing like that though!

I had a scary moment with my brother's Doberman and Mini Pinscher. They had just dropped them off for a weekend and were driving off. My Dad who never paid attention and was standing at the door with it open to wave at them.

In a split second two of the three dogs bolted out the door. I ran outside and tried to get them back in. All sorts of scary things ran through my head. The Mini Pinscher realized his mistake and ran back in the house immediately. But, the Doberman started to run wildly making larger circles until he was in the street. We lived on a busy street and I was scared she would be hit by a car. She was running like dogs who know they've been let out into an open area. Then, as quickly as she ran away from us, she decided to bolt for the door. I held it open and she ran in.

It took many minutes before my heart stopped pounding. I would have felt awful if anything had happened to the dogs while they were in my care. I almost had to phone them and tell them to turn around because I lost their dogs.

 

Oh wow, guys. I don't even know what to say to some of those stories. You guys are so lucky that the scary moments were just scary....and not the end of the story.

 

Jessi, I know it sounds odd but I actually feel blessed for having had to go through that with Kotton, it really changed me (I know that sounds cliche) and my relationship with her. The words I used to comfort her (and me) were promises that I have kept to this day, including letting her be a dog instead of a therapist and getting her playmates. Poor thing didn't even know HOW to play and I am determined to make sure nothing happens to her ever again...or her sisters.

 

This is a very young Bangkeaw. Note that the ears have not properly perked up yet.


This is a show quality Bangkeaw. Note the bushy tail which is a characteristic feature of the Bangkeaw.


And this is a Bangkeaw doing what it loves the most, getting wet.

 

Shooter (the one in my prime pic), fell on a side street canal hole when he’s about 3 months old. I was really scared back then because my thought was that there’s a dark deep water in it and he’ll drown. Luckily it’s summer and the canal was dry but still the hole is deep and dirty and I don’t know how to reach him. And I could see him looking up at me, standing on the wall wondering maybe how he’ll get out of there and for a pup in a scary place like that I imagined he must felt helpless and afraid. His mom Shakira was beside me and moving non-stop as if trying to find possible ways to rescue her pup then she would peep on the hole, trying to enter his head on the hole, putting her paws inside the hole but unfortunately, she can’t do more than that. What I did was I tried to extend the whole of my arm up to my shoulder or neck I think, trying to reach for him, hoping I could touch even just one of his feet, even just the tip of his paw. He must be reaching to my hand also after what seems like eternity I got a grip of one of his feet and was able to pull him up. What a relief. Shakira was licking him non-stop afterwards as I held him in my arms. But days after he got sick. He had broken bones.

 

Excuse me while I get a tissues, such scary and at times sad stories. So glad they ended with a happy ending. One never knows how much their children mean to them until they are in harms way.

I've been lucky with the boys, but we had a pretty scary moment when Gix was born. Pixie, my daughters dog seem to be in labor for hours and you could see her struggling to push and she would whine so horribly. We rushed her to the nearest animal hospital. Good thing too, the puppies were stuck and she was bleeding internally. She had to have a emergency c- section to save her life. Unfortunately, 3 of the 4 puppies did not survive having been dead for several days and were all so tiny. Gix was the sole survivor, he had to stay at the hospital for a bit, which was good because so did Pixie. This is why Gix is so special to us.

 

Golly, wow and the stories keep coming.
Victors experience
It was interesting that I Shed tears when I wrote some of my stories.Dogs can do this to us.
But
I still have one more story I almost forgot because it was so long ago.
A True Tale
After reading all those near road death stories it brought make a memory of my dog Seamus. I used to take him everywhere I went including to a wine bar and at night it had live music. I was allowed to take him in and he would sit under the table with me away from the loud music and crowd. On leaving one night I crossed the busy highway and stopped on the otherside to chat with friends. For some reason Seamus decided to cross back over as I hadn't put his lead on.He was run over by a car and actually went all the way under and tumbled out from the back. He got to his feet and ran up a side street. I went looking for him without luck. After a very long time I thought he was a gonna and I would never find him. I drove home over the busy bridge across a large river and then another mile or two home. The next morning Seamus was There. He had no injuries that I could see. It was unbelievable. He had never walked with me between those two places before. Yep scary and a miracle.

 

Aww Gix is special!! How did Pixie do, she survived right? I always admire when someone ignores cost when it comes to making sure not only their dog, but the puppies too, survive. I know many people who would say "Why pay for a c-section on an animal? If the puppies are meant to be alive then it'll happen."

 

Having a dog there are gong to be scary moments. I had one dog a beautiful Collie who got out of our yard during a bad storm. Because we live about a block from a main street he wondered into the street and was hit by a car. This was a very hard blow, another was a dog that we had years later a golden lab by the name of Rocky. The first scary moment was when he contacted Parvo and nearly died from it. Fortunately he survived, but a few years later also got out of the yard and we feared that he too would get hit by a car. Fortunately he was found unharmed and brought home. From that point on we started pinning our dogs in the back yard for their own protection. We had close calls with Rocky but he lived to be sixteen years old, which is a great life for dog. I still miss him he was a wonderful dog.

 

My poor Pommy was just 6 weeks old when he fell off my bed I was standing right there next to him and his feet got tangled in the blanket and he fell off before I could catch him. I was crying my eyes out all the way to the vet! He needed surgery for his leg. He wore a cast for weeks!

Another close call, my baby boy was sleeping under the bed and I heard him scratching at something. When I checked, he was messing with the cord to the lamp. I tried to pull him away before he did any damage. I must have touched him at the exact moment he sunk his teeth into the cord. He got zapped and because I was touching him, he thought I did it He hid in a corner of the house the rest of the night and growled at me and wouldn't let me touch him. I ended up calling my mom to come over. He let her pick him up and calm him down. He eventually went back to me, but it took some time. I'm not sure he ever realized it wasn't me.

 

When my coonhound was still pretty young she got into a fight with another dog while being walked down the street. In the process her leg got tangled in the chain and she tore ligaments. I never forget the day because my sister was walking her and I was at home. I hear her (the dog) let out one of the sadded yelps/bars when it happened and went running over to see what happened. I thought maybe she got hit by a car or something and was pretty much in tears by the time I got over to her. She eventually healed for the most part, but for the next several weeks we had to hold her whenever she had to squat to go.

Also for some strange reason, we quickly found out that she was terrified of fire and open umbrellas. She would go bonkers if you lit a match or a lighter. Not sure what happened to her before we got her to cause that.