My Dog and I#4
By Aarav,13
In my last blog post, I wrote about our walk on that Sunday Feb 6th, 2022 . Despite still recovering from giardia, Axl was enjoying his walk — the smells and sights.
We walked a whole 3 miles from Alamo to Danville on Iron Horse Trail. There we stopped and ate a local restaurant. We got some boiled chicken for Axl ( instead of the grilled / pan fried treat he gets in weekends). He enjoyed that and got a bowl of water as well that he lapped away happily.
Nothing prepared us for what would come next. On our way back from the restaurant, Axl was walking merrily along his way. We have a long leash for him which allows his freedom to move ahead of us.
I was holding the leash. Axl was moving around smelling the fences, trees and grass. Suddenly I felt a jerk and I heard him cry. That sound was horrible and got my full attention. I ran forward trying to reel in his leash.
Axl was stuck on the fence and moving. I yanked him away. To my horror, I saw blood on his snout. I shouted to my Dad, who was already running behind me. Axl was crying and bleeding all over his nose. I felt so bad , I started crying. I was supposed to protect him.
We could not see a lot as it was dark. So we tried to walk him back fast to get home. At home my Dad cleaned out the bloody snout. Axl had deep cuts on his snout. My Dad decided to take him to the hospital right away.
I held Axl as we drove to the hospital. I started to remember what happened…
As we had walked back , there were dogs barking from behind the fences. As the friendly and loving dog Axl is, he ran straight toward a dog’s bark. Axl able stuck his little 4 month old snout in the gap between the fence and the ground. This dog , who probably was bad tempered , caught his snout between his teeth and yanked him around. It was so awful.
At the hospital, Axl got his blood work done on his hind leg first. Then they gave him anesthesia for dogs so he was in deep sleep. I remember holding the oxygen tube and helping the doctors when they stitched his wound together. The bite was so bad, it went through his lip!
He woke up 10 minutes after the procedure, but didn’t budge. He was so drowsy.
He got the “cone of shame” around his head. I don’t think it is a cone of shame. He was just being friendly with another dog:( After a while, he stood up as he knew he couldn’t get the cone off. We drove back home, where he lied in one spot for the rest of the night.
In the beginning he had a tough time with the cone. His side vision was blocked. He would bang on walls and could not play with his toys.
But being a trooper that he is , he figured it out and even managed to play with his toys!
He was healed in about 8 weeks. He still has scars which we hope will fade away.
Update: “A dog does remember ”
An amazing thing happened last week. My parents took Axl for a walk on the same path where he got bit months ago. We had taken him several times before and he would walk down happily.
However this time he suddenly froze when he heard a bark. My parents looked around. They were at the same spot in front of the fence where Axl got bit.
Axl would not move forward. He jumped on my mom’s back and hid behind her as if telling her to protect him. My parents turned around and walked away from that fence.
That really shook me — that day I felt so sad. I did not realize that dog’s can remember events, but this event definitely has scared him.
