I know it is Tuesday and I should have a treasury today…but this is a busy, busy week for this household (aren’t they all?) and I just couldn’t get into it. I started a few, but with no luck. There is just so much weighing on my heart.

Last weekend – the weekend before Thanksgiving – as we were packing the car to go on our annual Pittsburgh Pilgrimage our girl dog bit our 16 month old son.

He is doing fine now – thanks to a trip to the ER, strong antibiotics and consistent wound care.  All that considered, it still should never have happened.

Our girl dog is a sweet, beautiful black lab and greyhound mix. She is sensitive and protective. She is excitable and affectionate. We adopted her from a rescue organization just weeks after we got married. She was supposed to be my husband’s dog, since we had a dog already that was very much my dog. She quickly became my dog though.

 Maybe it was her fear of men that pushed her to me. She was beaten- we assume by a man, probably with a broom or a stick. The man probably smoked. She has a strong negative reaction anytime she smells cigarette smoke.

When I was pregnant she would lie next to me on the bed with her head on my belly, or snuggled up behind my knees. She was on constant guard when the baby arrived. Any noise from the nursery and she was to the nearest person alerting them that something needed to be done, her baby was in need.

She did great through our daughter’s toddler years, but we were in a house with lots of room for her kennel and a bed for her, and a huge fenced yard for her to escape to.

The past few months with her have been rough, or at least I can see that in hindsight. She spent the summer with the kids and me at my parents. She had a nice yard to be in – away from all the hustle and bustle of the kids.  Back home, though it is a yard-less townhouse with less space and more activity.  I can say now looking back she was not happy, she was on constant edge.

Our son is walking, chatting and getting into everything including her space. I didn’t realize how uneasy it made her. Our boy dog is slow to react and when he does react it is to simply get up and walk away.  Not the girl dog. She seemed torn between wanting the affection (toddler pats and rubs, sometimes with toys) and wanting to be left alone. We never left the dogs and kids alone together, and we worked with our son to teach him gentle and when to leave the dogs alone. Learning those things is a slow process.

And so we reach that Saturday…The dogs were anxious as we packed the car thinking they were going. The kids were playing upstairs with my mom so they weren’t under foot as things were carted to the car and the last of the chores finished up. Somehow in all of that the girl dog had all that she could take and bit our son, puncturing through the external part of his ear and leaving several gashes.

This weekend, when we returned from our trip, my husband took the girl dog back to the organization we adopted her through. We had been in touch with them almost immediately after the bite and they were gracious enough to take her, as was indicated in the adoption paperwork.  

Our first responsibility as parents is to keep our kids safe. We want animals, dogs especially to be a part of our home and our children’s childhood, but it has to be safely.  We also have a responsibility to our pets to provide them an environment that they can thrive in, and our home just wasn’t that for the girl dog. I feel foolish that we didn’t recognize it sooner, and blessed that in the end all to show for the mistake will be a few small scars on our sons ear.

Looking back I feel that she was never truly at easy or comfortable with us, and maybe she will never be like that with anyone in any home, but I hope that is not that the case. I pray that there is someone with a big heart and quite home that needs the girl dog as much as she needs a quite place and someone to love. I pray that they find each other quickly, as I don’t know how well the girl dog will weather being kept in a kennel.

Sister Mary Marley Louise O’Jones…. She is no longer a part of our household, but she will always be a part of my heart.