#541: A Squirrel Bites My Dog

My little terrier, miniature greyhound mutt, had it coming. This rodent with a stump of a tail, running along the fence, decides to come down into the yard where I am napping on the hammock and my two dogs are likewise lounging. The small dog is onto the squirrel first while the larger shepherd-lab-husky mutt is close behind. The little dog pins the thing and immediately it defends itself and my pup is yelping like it’s the end of the world and I’m up out of the hammock, trying to break up the chaos. I am yelling and chasing the melee around the yard, at one point lashing out at my dog who shakes the squirrel from side to side like a ragdoll. I manage to create enough of a distraction so that the squirrel gets loose, for a moment flailing around on its back, and then flipping itself around and making its escape underneath the fence and into my neighbor’s yard. Both of my dogs have blood coming from their mouths. I’m worried that both of them have been injured, but the big dog, the squirrel’s blood dribbling from its lips, is fine, unharmed. The little dog has blood all over its nose, maybe coming from its mouth, and there’s a gash under her eye, small, but visible, from squirrel teeth or claw. I get some blood on my fingers checking inside the dog’s mouth for more injuries. I don’t know whose blood it is, but I wash it off with hot water and soap just the same. I call the vet. By then, if the dogs were bloodied by the squirrel, there’s no new bleeding and neither dog seems the worse for wear–except for the post-panic panting–and the vet tells me to watch them closely, but not to bring them in. Later, both dogs acting as if nothing has happened, I determine that neither dog is injured and that all that blood must have belonged to the squirrel. She must be out there somewhere. I cringe to think about that little animal in agony, and I’m reminded that our dear and loving pets are really hunters down deep, that had I not intervened, they would have ripped that little creature to shreds. I’m just a person. Instinctually, I’m trying to do the right thing, to prevent more gore, to protect a cute neighbor–a decision that likely prolonged the suffering of that poor squirrel that bit my dog.