One hell of a weekend
So to start in the middle of a story. Saturday at 12 noon my dog Graham was attacked by one of our Rover boarders. The owners have been so apologetic and are covering the ER Vet costs. They’ve also been contacted every step of the way in case I leave out a call here and there.
Friday these two dogs were dropped off. A GSD mix I’ll call Dolly and a Corgi mix I’ll call Jazz. We had two meet and greets because the owners were nervous about boarding them. I always love having more because it’s a great play date for my dogs and I get a good feel for the dogs personalities and how well the dogs listen. Both play dates went well there was some barking but nothing that would make me think aggression. The owners were present for the first and did a drop off for the 2nd to see how the dogs would do without the owners around.
Both are beautiful dogs and super sweet. Just want love and to play and run. So great! They booked it and dropped them off Friday morning. Friday evening Dolly attacked Jazz as he was running to the door wanting outside. It took both me and my husband to break it up. I grabbed Jazz my husband grabbed Dolly and we waited for Dolly to let go. Jazz was screaming and turned only able to reach Dolly’s eye. I inspected both dogs cleaned them up and contacted the owners. I told them I was going to have to restrict Dolly’s access to the other dogs. I did that by putting a slip lead on her and keeping her next to me all night and took her on a 3mile walk Saturday morning. I then left for an hr to walk my moms dog and got back home a little before 12. I let my 4 and Jazz outside then brought Dolly out on the lead. My youngest Graham was playing with his favorite Jolly Ball. I kicked it out into the yard when he dropped it close. Making sure to keep Dolly back. He ran and chased after the ball as I stood there with Dolly. As he ran up again he shook the ball. It’s the bigger 12” one so it’s hilarious to watch this 38lb rat terrier mix with a red ball that’s bigger than his whole chest.
That’s when hell broke lose.
I saw Dolly lunge as Graham’s back is turned. I was already pulling back on the lead but Graham had gotten too close to quickly and Dolly yanked me forward all 84 lbs. She clamped down on his neck and pinned him in the mud. I grab for her regular collar to hold her back until she lets go. Graham was screaming and I knew if I could hold her back until she let go then he would run off to safety. I grabbed the buckle and the collar fell in the mud. I’m in total mama bear mode at this point and I two handed scruff Dolly and just pull up enough so Graham has room to drop and run. It takes me 3 tries because of the mud we’re all slipping around. I brace myself so Dolly can’t turn on me and the last little pull up she finally let go and Graham ran. Dolly stopped her fight mode and I’m able to walk her to a crate surprisingly calmly and I ran for Graham. I found him in my bed. He was caked in mud, smelled of anal glands and I could see blood on his shoulder. It took me 20 minutes to get him to even let me touch him. My husband works nights so he was asleep right next to Graham. So even once I was able to get close the second I picked him up he screamed out and woke my husband up as I ran out of the room to the tub. I didn’t even stop to check if my husband got up. With Graham in the tub I then started looking around for wounds and found a big thumb size tear on his right shoulder. I wash him up and trim away the hair around the holes I can find. Poor Graham is shaking. I call my mom to get her to look up the vet as I check the other dogs over and get Graham in the car. I also call the owners with no response at first but got a call back before we left for the vet. We walk in the vet at 1. They check him to make sure he’s stable. He’s walking fine just very stiff and cautious and he’s kicked up his shaking but he’s already scared of the car and the vet so nothing is going his way. After about an hour and a half we are finally let into a room and a tech comes in to look Graham over. I point out all the puncture wounds and scratches I found and they do the regular weight stuff and and ask what happened. They go away and we just wait. At 3 I text my husband. I wanted to make sure he knew what happened and DO NOT let Dolly around the other dogs. I’m texting the owners and my mom little updates. Everyone is worried and the owners can’t get a flight back until Monday. At 4:30 they take him back to shave, clean out his wounds, and give him pain meds. He was so good with the whole process they didn’t have to sedate him. He’s such a good boy! Somehow while there was pulled skin and lots of wounds we made it out of there in under $300. We got home a little after 5.
So the rest of Saturday and Sunday was much of the same. I would let the 5 out and then let Dolly come out of the crate for love then I would crate her to get all the dogs inside before walking her by her collar outside and walking around the yard with her.
Around 10 Sunday the owners call because over night the husband’s Grandmother died of a massive heart attack. He ask if I can keep Jazz another week but take Dolly to their house so the wife’s parents can care for her. I tell them no problem and to just start a new stay with only Jazz. A couple hours later they call because it’s going to be too expensive with everything going on. I totally understand and the new plan is to take them both home Tuesday and they will be kept separate until the owners get back. Monday I’m shifting out the dogs and let Dolly out to potty she squats and I see brown but I’m pretty far away. I trying follow her but after two failed attempts to catch her peeing I go ahead and alert the owners. They tell me to keep an eye on it if it get worse so I go back to following Dolly around the yard, this dog marks a lot so I knew eventually I’d catch her if I stayed close. Sure enough I caught her and it wasn’t brown, it was bright red! So I send a picture of the leaf she had peed on and the owners asked if I could take her to the vet. Of course, no problem, I didn’t feel good about waiting any more than them. I had a dog walk but I offered to drop the dog off at their vet and I could pick her back up. Got Dolly in the car looked at my phone, walk canceled. Good news because also the regular vet is slammed so I run her to one down the street, not my regular vet but it’s close. I get there and they are slammed too and couldn’t see her until 4:30 I call my regular vet and they have an opening at 3:30 so that’s better than nothing. I have the owners call to give their information and to give me the ok to have her treated. Perfect! I love this vet BTW. 6 yrs ago they saved my boxer Mia from immune mediated thrombocytopenia and they were amazed we even caught it. I’m still amazed they/we caught it! I get there early to make sure they had all the information and then waited in the car because I don’t want Dolly getting any ideas as dogs passed in and out. I get in a room with her and they get a urine sample immediately. It comes back as a possible UTI. The very same vet that caught Mia’s IMT is the vet over seeing everything she asks what all is going on. She knows I’m the pet sitter and that this dog was responsible for two dog attacks over the weekend. As she’s examining Dolly I notice and I point out that her right eye is red and that’s new. They take a look and it looks suspicious of something else so she does a CBC. She comes back in the room with the CBC results and asks if I’m a vet tech. I tell her “no but you’re the one that treated my mom’s dog when she got IMT.”
She then says well you’re very in tune with animals. Dolly has a a similar form of thrombocytopenia just not the autoimmune kind. They gave me doxycycline and I made an appointment with her regular vet at 8am Tuesday morning. I’m just in shock. The vet couldn’t believe it, I can’t believe it, the owners are beside themselves and want to write a book now. Like I couldn’t make this up if I tried. Dolly hadn’t eaten since Saturday morning (typical behavior) and the meds they prescribed could make her sick on an empty stomach so they gave me a can of prescription dog food to try to entice her to eat. Which worked fantastic she ate and got the pill down without any coaxing.
8am Tuesday I drop Dolly off so her regular vet can figure out what is going on. I pick her up at 5 and then take both dogs home at 6:30 once the owners parents get home. The owners are out of the country for another week.
I just don’t even know what to say anymore. This whole weekend has been a blur. I keep hearing stories about how some Rover or Wag client had a horrible experience with the platform or sitter... I treat every animal in my care as they are my own. I care and protect them as I would my own. I don’t do this for the money I do it because I care about the animals wellbeing. I wish more sitters took it as seriously.
So to start in the middle of a story. Saturday at 12 noon my dog Graham was attacked by one of our Rover boarders. The owners have been so apologetic and are covering the ER Vet costs. They’ve also been contacted every step of the way in case I leave out a call here and there.
Friday these two dogs were dropped off. A GSD mix I’ll call Dolly and a Corgi mix I’ll call Jazz. We had two meet and greets because the owners were nervous about boarding them. I always love having more because it’s a great play date for my dogs and I get a good feel for the dogs personalities and how well the dogs listen. Both play dates went well there was some barking but nothing that would make me think aggression. The owners were present for the first and did a drop off for the 2nd to see how the dogs would do without the owners around.
Both are beautiful dogs and super sweet. Just want love and to play and run. So great! They booked it and dropped them off Friday morning. Friday evening Dolly attacked Jazz as he was running to the door wanting outside. It took both me and my husband to break it up. I grabbed Jazz my husband grabbed Dolly and we waited for Dolly to let go. Jazz was screaming and turned only able to reach Dolly’s eye. I inspected both dogs cleaned them up and contacted the owners. I told them I was going to have to restrict Dolly’s access to the other dogs. I did that by putting a slip lead on her and keeping her next to me all night and took her on a 3mile walk Saturday morning. I then left for an hr to walk my moms dog and got back home a little before 12. I let my 4 and Jazz outside then brought Dolly out on the lead. My youngest Graham was playing with his favorite Jolly Ball. I kicked it out into the yard when he dropped it close. Making sure to keep Dolly back. He ran and chased after the ball as I stood there with Dolly. As he ran up again he shook the ball. It’s the bigger 12” one so it’s hilarious to watch this 38lb rat terrier mix with a red ball that’s bigger than his whole chest.
That’s when hell broke lose.
I saw Dolly lunge as Graham’s back is turned. I was already pulling back on the lead but Graham had gotten too close to quickly and Dolly yanked me forward all 84 lbs. She clamped down on his neck and pinned him in the mud. I grab for her regular collar to hold her back until she lets go. Graham was screaming and I knew if I could hold her back until she let go then he would run off to safety. I grabbed the buckle and the collar fell in the mud. I’m in total mama bear mode at this point and I two handed scruff Dolly and just pull up enough so Graham has room to drop and run. It takes me 3 tries because of the mud we’re all slipping around. I brace myself so Dolly can’t turn on me and the last little pull up she finally let go and Graham ran. Dolly stopped her fight mode and I’m able to walk her to a crate surprisingly calmly and I ran for Graham. I found him in my bed. He was caked in mud, smelled of anal glands and I could see blood on his shoulder. It took me 20 minutes to get him to even let me touch him. My husband works nights so he was asleep right next to Graham. So even once I was able to get close the second I picked him up he screamed out and woke my husband up as I ran out of the room to the tub. I didn’t even stop to check if my husband got up. With Graham in the tub I then started looking around for wounds and found a big thumb size tear on his right shoulder. I wash him up and trim away the hair around the holes I can find. Poor Graham is shaking. I call my mom to get her to look up the vet as I check the other dogs over and get Graham in the car. I also call the owners with no response at first but got a call back before we left for the vet. We walk in the vet at 1. They check him to make sure he’s stable. He’s walking fine just very stiff and cautious and he’s kicked up his shaking but he’s already scared of the car and the vet so nothing is going his way. After about an hour and a half we are finally let into a room and a tech comes in to look Graham over. I point out all the puncture wounds and scratches I found and they do the regular weight stuff and and ask what happened. They go away and we just wait. At 3 I text my husband. I wanted to make sure he knew what happened and DO NOT let Dolly around the other dogs. I’m texting the owners and my mom little updates. Everyone is worried and the owners can’t get a flight back until Monday. At 4:30 they take him back to shave, clean out his wounds, and give him pain meds. He was so good with the whole process they didn’t have to sedate him. He’s such a good boy! Somehow while there was pulled skin and lots of wounds we made it out of there in under $300. We got home a little after 5.
So the rest of Saturday and Sunday was much of the same. I would let the 5 out and then let Dolly come out of the crate for love then I would crate her to get all the dogs inside before walking her by her collar outside and walking around the yard with her.
Around 10 Sunday the owners call because over night the husband’s Grandmother died of a massive heart attack. He ask if I can keep Jazz another week but take Dolly to their house so the wife’s parents can care for her. I tell them no problem and to just start a new stay with only Jazz. A couple hours later they call because it’s going to be too expensive with everything going on. I totally understand and the new plan is to take them both home Tuesday and they will be kept separate until the owners get back. Monday I’m shifting out the dogs and let Dolly out to potty she squats and I see brown but I’m pretty far away. I trying follow her but after two failed attempts to catch her peeing I go ahead and alert the owners. They tell me to keep an eye on it if it get worse so I go back to following Dolly around the yard, this dog marks a lot so I knew eventually I’d catch her if I stayed close. Sure enough I caught her and it wasn’t brown, it was bright red! So I send a picture of the leaf she had peed on and the owners asked if I could take her to the vet. Of course, no problem, I didn’t feel good about waiting any more than them. I had a dog walk but I offered to drop the dog off at their vet and I could pick her back up. Got Dolly in the car looked at my phone, walk canceled. Good news because also the regular vet is slammed so I run her to one down the street, not my regular vet but it’s close. I get there and they are slammed too and couldn’t see her until 4:30 I call my regular vet and they have an opening at 3:30 so that’s better than nothing. I have the owners call to give their information and to give me the ok to have her treated. Perfect! I love this vet BTW. 6 yrs ago they saved my boxer Mia from immune mediated thrombocytopenia and they were amazed we even caught it. I’m still amazed they/we caught it! I get there early to make sure they had all the information and then waited in the car because I don’t want Dolly getting any ideas as dogs passed in and out. I get in a room with her and they get a urine sample immediately. It comes back as a possible UTI. The very same vet that caught Mia’s IMT is the vet over seeing everything she asks what all is going on. She knows I’m the pet sitter and that this dog was responsible for two dog attacks over the weekend. As she’s examining Dolly I notice and I point out that her right eye is red and that’s new. They take a look and it looks suspicious of something else so she does a CBC. She comes back in the room with the CBC results and asks if I’m a vet tech. I tell her “no but you’re the one that treated my mom’s dog when she got IMT.”
She then says well you’re very in tune with animals. Dolly has a a similar form of thrombocytopenia just not the autoimmune kind. They gave me doxycycline and I made an appointment with her regular vet at 8am Tuesday morning. I’m just in shock. The vet couldn’t believe it, I can’t believe it, the owners are beside themselves and want to write a book now. Like I couldn’t make this up if I tried. Dolly hadn’t eaten since Saturday morning (typical behavior) and the meds they prescribed could make her sick on an empty stomach so they gave me a can of prescription dog food to try to entice her to eat. Which worked fantastic she ate and got the pill down without any coaxing.
8am Tuesday I drop Dolly off so her regular vet can figure out what is going on. I pick her up at 5 and then take both dogs home at 6:30 once the owners parents get home. The owners are out of the country for another week.
I just don’t even know what to say anymore. This whole weekend has been a blur. I keep hearing stories about how some Rover or Wag client had a horrible experience with the platform or sitter... I treat every animal in my care as they are my own. I care and protect them as I would my own. I don’t do this for the money I do it because I care about the animals wellbeing. I wish more sitters took it as seriously.
