Not again!

We can't believe it. Mendel has been attacked again, this time by a stranger's dog at while Jeff was skijoring at Chestnut Ridge.  His shoulder is bleeding and a large flap of skin has been ripped open.  Further more, why, oh why, do people with unreliable dogs let their dogs loose in the park?  Back to the vet.  The past few months have been regularly punctuated by emergency visits to the vet, starting last fall, when Mendel played with a rabid raccoon.

There are so many reasons why this is frustrating, even infuriating:

1] He just recovered from being "off his feet" with the paw injury.   (See the bootie in the above photo?)  It is really hard to keep a young, athletic dog "quiet", and now we have to start all over.  We have to watch him carefully, so he does not chew the wound or stitches open.  We also have to keep his side clean, without any dressing on the wound.   When we leash walk him, he throws himself on the ground and rolls.  There is no way to protect his wound, when he does this, as he is in an unstoppable fury.  We can't trust him home alone, so I will be curtailing my own activities, and hiring a sitter for the time I am at work.  The inconvenience is enormous.

2] The owner never learned that his dog is dangerous,  AND we got stuck with the $350 vet bill.

3] The big Tug Hill race is next weekend, and he is on restriction for at least 10 days, until he gets the stitches out and is re-examined.  This race has been the focus of our winter, and we already took the time off from work and so on....

4] It is becoming clear that the wound on Mendel's head (from Flora's Thanksgiving attack under the dining table) is going to leave a noticeable, permanent scar on his forehead.  I wish the emergency vet had stitched it, so it would have closed up better.  That injury took a long time to heal, and the scab busted open many times, because no stitches were recommended on the face.  Boo.