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2003-10-07 - 4:02 p.m.

A really scary thing happened. It keeps coming back to me in waves�. I keep thinking about how it could have been so much worse. But it was bad enough.

Sunday was one of those glorious, bright fall afternoons, and we were out in the back yard, trimming our wisteria. Piper was up on a ladder with the clippers and I was holding the ladder steady from below. Our little dog was tethered to a long lead nearby, because even though we have six-foot fences surrounding our entire yard, we don�t have a gate right now. Suddenly, and completely without warning, something hit the back fence and we saw a large, muscular dog come flying over into our yard, barely missing Piper on the ladder. This dog headed straight for our little Maltese (tied so he couldn�t escape), grabbed him by the throat and began shaking him like a wild carnivore shakes its prey. Piper started screaming. I was yelling, too. I think I said �He�s getting killed!� �Stop it!� I ran over to try and rescue our dog, but when the intruder looked up, I saw the wide jaw and those white soul-of-evil eyes and realized it was a pit bull. I knew I�d better not get into this fight without a weapon. I looked around and grabbed the long handled hedge trimmers and was just about to try and knock the pit bull out, when�..another surprise�.a heavily tattooed young man, who made me think of Tarzan for some reason, came flying over the fence, too, and grabbed the dog. Amazingly, the pit bull stopped his attack.

It was all so bizarre. By this time, Piper and I are hysterical, our dog is bleeding and yelping, and the guy is apologizing and trying to figure out how to get back over the fence.

We went in and called the vet, and while we were still in shock and trying to figure out how badly our dog was hurt, the young man shows up at our door again. He has brought peroxide, cotton balls and Neosporin, and he helps Piper clean the wounds while I am on the phone with the vet. He is sorry, of course. He says his dog doesn�t usually behave like that. He offers to pay for everything. I�m sure he doesn�t want to get sued, but then it was still decent of him to come back and want to help.

Our poor little dog is so pathetic. He can barely put one of his front legs down, and he has some deep puncture wounds in his neck and chest area. But he is going to be okay. We got him started on the antibiotics and pain medicine Sunday night, and he had his wounds taken care of and a thorough check up at the vet on Monday.

We were so shaken up, we were both just wrecks all evening. I think it is just because, unlike our dog, we can�t get over what a close call it was. In just another few seconds, we would have seen out little dog killed before our eyes. Or maybe I would have been successful in knocking the pit bull out with the hedge trimmers, but if I was not, then I might have been attacked, too. We are afraid that the pit bull leaped the fence because it heard our voices and the bushes rustling, and then attacked the dog instead once it came across. It could have been us.

This is the second time that a pit bull has attacked our dog, although the first time was less serious. But it came over a fence that time, too, and attacked Piper as she was just innocently walking down the street with the Pipsqueek, and ripped her sleeve as she tried to hold the little dog out of reach. She was rescued by some construction workers that time.

And what happens if nobody is around to come to our aid?

I don�t know why people think they need to have vicious dogs. These dogs that are bred to kill are like ticking time bombs. Even when the owners think they have them under control, they can do something like leap a six-foot fence to get to something they want to kill. Piper is going to talk to the company that owns most of the rental houses in our neighborhood, about not allowing their renters to have pit bulls. I don�t know if it will do any good, but at least maybe it will help us not to feel so victimized.

The guy promised that he wouldn�t let his dog loose back there, but I still feel nervous about it. And I hate feeling like we aren�t even safe in our own back yard, or basically we are depending on the pit bull�s owner to keep his word. He was apologetic, but it still remains to be seen whether he is sorry enough to keep his dog tied and actually pay us back for our $67 vet bill.

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