Yesterday the size of my dog family doubled--although only temporarily. A friend of mine, Jim, was visiting here to compete in a dog sled race. He was badly injured when his sled hit a tree. (his dogs were all fine at that point). Jim has a broken pelvis and is hospitalized. As he was being cared for by the EMS team, he was only worried about his dogs. He had 14 of them here for the races. So I told him to worry about himself and I would take his dogs to my place and make sure they were cared for. So that makes 32 dogs at my place.
Last night, i got his dogs settled in--they are sled dogs and used to being chained so that's what I did. Then I went to the hospital to visit and let Jim know his "kids" were alright.
Two hours later, I come home to only 13 dogs--one of his is missing and one is bleeding and badly hurt. I know I had them tied up so they couldn't fight. I don't even know most of their names, let alone who gets along with who so I just kept them apart. Rush injured dog inside and then start calling neighbors looking for the other one. Sure enough one of the neighbors has a little brown sled dog--who's been ATTACKED by a wolf!!!
Rush them both to the vet--who confirms it is a wolf attack by the bite patterns. It's a miracle these two dogs are alive. I am calling them Lucky 1 and Lucky 2 until I can find out their real names! The vet says they will both likely be alright eventually. Called wildlife department who was stunned. Even the officer I talked to said "what kind of wolf walks into the middle of 32 dogs?".
I am just sick--Jim trusted me with his dogs and I let them get hurt. He's a single guy, no kids, and these little furheads are his life. I am not looking forward to going to the hospital this afternoon to tell him. At least I can tell him they will be alright, I can't imagine having to tell him they were dead!
If any of you have any spare prayers or good thoughts Jim and his dogs could sure use them!
Bookmarks