The past few days have been really difficult. Our whole family is grieving right now. On Monday evening, Harrison and I were getting ready to leave the house to go over to my sister's house. Harrison had his snack container in his hand full of snacks and was eating them. Just as we were about to walk out the door, I remembered I needed to grab something upstairs. I ran up the stairs and in the ten seconds I was gone, I heard a snarl from our dog and then a scream from Harrison. I raced downstairs to find the dog on my baby boy. I yelled "NO!" to the dog as I came down the stairs and he backed away realizing what he had done. I scooped Harrison up and pulled Max downstairs into the garage in the dark. (He has never been put in the garage but I was angry and didn't know what to do.)
Harrison was screaming this whole time and swatting at his head. I tried to let him show me his wounds but he was refusing. Finally, when I caught a glimpse, I was sick to my stomach. He had various scratches (one really bad one on the side of his face that will be a big scar) not to mention to GAPING gashes on the back and side of his head. He was bleeding profusely from both areas, as head wounds are wont to do.
I immediately called my sister and she and her husband got to our house within minutes. Before they got there, I said a prayer that I would be able to get a hold of Evan at work. Usually he has no coverage where he works, but he actually answered the phone! Heavenly Father listened to my prayer. I felt really blessed.
Once my sister got there, Paul gave Harrison a quick blessing and we rushed off to the hospital with Harrison shrieking in spite of a sucker in his hand. He screamed and cried forever, occasionally shouting our dog's name in anger because of what happened. Nothing would make him happy. I even tried nursing him at the hospital, but he was still just struggling for obvious reasons. When the doctor tried to assess him, he shook his head to violently. He even closed his eyes tight when the doctor tried to look in his eyes and wouldn't open them until the doctor left shouting angrily, "DOCTOR!" I didn't even know he knew that word! He was having the hardest time calming down no matter what we tried... until his dad walked in the door. Evan cried when he walked in and saw Harrison's head so torn up. I've never seen Evan cry before, so it was pretty jarring to me to know how much Harrison's injuries affected his dad! The second Evan got there, Harrison stopped crying and calmed down. Eventually, he wanted daddy to hold him and he just laid down on Evan's shoulder and let Evan rub his back. It was really sweet!
I was SO glad that Evan came because since Harrison was so strong and combative, the doctor was worried about getting an accurate CT scan or even doing the staples without putting him under general anesthetic. While I understood the need for Harrison to get scanned, I did NOT want him to have to go under general anesthetic for a 60-second procedure! When Evan got there, he suggested doing a sedative first. I prayed and prayed that it would work! Paul and Evan gave Harrison another blessing before the sedative (which, by the way, didn't really have any effect on my sweet, STRONG-willed boy!). They strapped him onto a papoose board for the CT and Evan held his head. Thankfully, they got a clear scan and the results came that Harrison was fine.
Once they came back to me waiting, they had to once again strap him down (HORRIBLE TO SEE, but I knew it was necessary so I stayed strong and tried to help calm the baby who was under sedatives that were not working on him), clean the wounds in his head and proceed to staple them shut. 11 staples later, Harrison was angry but calming down in his mom's arms. He was so glad when we left the hospital!
Evan's brother was home when we got there and was so kind to clean our kitchen and feed our dog while we were gone. After I got Harrison fed, changed, and in bed, then came the hard decision. We really did not want to get rid of Max. We love him. He has been such a good dog to our family. Before we got him, we looked at lots of other dogs. We saw him and could not stop thinking about him for three weeks. We prayed and felt like he was the right dog for our family. I know he was supposed to be in our family and I'm so glad he was. That made the decision to have him put down all the harder! We both cried about it.
We are still crying about it. We miss our dog so much, but we know that it was the right decision. We couldn't keep him, nor could we allow another family to have him either. They say that once a dog bites, something switches in their brain and they are likely to do it again. Obviously, the safety of our child and others trumps the love we feel for our dog. It was a hard choice, but the right one. I still miss him. Just today, I cried as we came home from my sister's house, realizing Max wouldn't be waiting for me at the front door. He was our walking buddy, our companion, he made me feel safer when I was home alone. He would watch movies with me, play with Harrison. He was a great dog for us and we still are sad. Our house feels empty without him.
It will take a while for us to recover emotionally from all of this. I still love dogs, but may have a hard time trusting them in the future. We want to own another dog someday, but we are considering getting a puppy and training it ourselves. I don't know... I can't even think about that now. For now, I'm going to focus on helping Harrison recover and dealing with my grief at the loss of a wonderful, beloved pet. R.I.P. Max
Harrison all sewn up almost ready to go home. Thankfully, my sister brought us dinner!
Holding our little guy down... this picture breaks my heart!
Blood oxygen monitor that Harrison wanted to RIP off of his foot... and tried to do many times before they had to just tape that sucker down.
In this picture, you can see the smaller of the two gashes in his head.
It was deeper than it looks in this picture. So traumatizing for all of us!
Letting daddy calm him down
My sister took this one right when we got there so we could remember. Still freaks me out to look at it!
My poor little buddy!
This sweet boy... he was so brave!
