Birthdays and Doggies

Yesterday was my sister Kelli's 19th birthday and we had our family over after dinner. Since the weather was so nice, we wanted to sit outside. My twin sis and I had decorated our outside deck with a Tiki theme for Kelli's birthday (gotta love Party City!!) . Anyway, we were having a very nice time.

Our dog, Murphy, was playing with my cousins but, every once in awhile, would go over to the neighbor's gate to see his dog. However, the neighbor's dog (a male rottweiler) does not like Murphy. At all. It's not a new dog, but is new to the neighbor's house...he's only had him for a few weeks. Since both the neighbor's dog and our dog are males, we think that's why the other dog doesn't like ours. (Murphy tried to like him, but would get barked at every time he tried to make nice.) Murphy assumes this dog is friendly because he grew up with the neighbor's former dog (a female rottweiler) who treated Murphy more like her puppy. They got along very well, but unfortunately she was sick and died earlier this year.

Murphy, who is only a little rat terrier, can fit his head through the bars of the neighbor's gate. He's done this before, but previously just got barked at. For whatever reason, though, last night the neighbor's dog lashed out at Murphy and bit him. He's got 3 or 4 puncture wounds on his snout. We think that the other dog was really worked up from all the activity in our yard and just didn't want Murphy invading his territory. My sisters, cousins, and I were especially upset. None of us realized right away that he had been bitten, until he cowered away and my cousin Gina said she thought she saw the other dog actually bite Murphy. It took a few minutes of looking over him until the blood came to the surface of his snout. I felt so bad because Murphy looked so upset. We put peroxide on the wounds to keep out infection and iced it to reduce swelling, but it's still a little swollen today. Murphy was following my sisters and I around everywhere today (which he usually does when he's frightened or upset about something). Thank God, though, he's had all his shots, and will be going to the vet soon anyway for a nail-clipping and check-up.

Hopefully Murphy will learn to not be so trusting of other animals he doesn't know. I wouldn't want to see anything like this happen again!