I Am So Bleeping Mad I Could Spit

WARNING: THERE WILL BE BITCHING AND WHINING (but with good reason...)

Yesterday Big Daddy was coming home from his bike ride. Chelsea, the old big black dog was waiting patiently at the top of our drive for him. As B.D. is coming up the hill, out of the woods comes our neighbor's pit bull. She pounces on unsuspecting Chelsea and rips in to her. No warning at all. Now, those of you that have been reading this blog may recall that we've had numerous not-so-pleasant encounters with said dog and her irresponsible, inbred owners. Big Daddy tries to break up the ensuing dog fight. From down the hill at the neighbors' house, he hears someone calling the dog. The dog runs off. Big Daddy helps Chelsea into the house and is generally too flustered to think straight. (I love Big Daddy, but he is not very effective in emergencies involving blood and the need for a quick reaction.) I pointed him in the direction of the phone and cleaned up Chelsea.

Following Buncombe County Animal Control's past advice on dealing with the poorly raised dogs down the hill, we called 911. The deputies arrived and called Animal Control (go figure). Several hours later Animal Control and the deputies left the neighbors' house, apparently without the dog. The owner said her good dog had been inside all evening. Eh hum....

Chelsea had surgery this morning. Her hip was mauled pretty badly and required stitches and a drain. She's been given antibiotics and painkillers. I can go pick her up in a couple of hours. She's going to be sporting one of those gorgeous cone heads. She gets lots of antibiotics and painkillers to take. I wonder if I can take her painkillers?

We've had to fill out incident reports and spend our morning talking to Animal Control and the veterinarian (a good man indeed). I get to worry about the safety of my animals and child, spend my morning at the vet and on the phone and writing out reports for Animal Control. I get to look at my checkbook and try to figure out how I am going to pay my vet bill. My "neighbor" gets to spend her morning sitting on her fat ass, listening to Lynard Skynard (way too loud), hang out with her "good dog", all while admiring the white Firebird Trans Am up on cinder blocks in her front yard. I wish I was making all that up. I take care of my animals. They stay on my property. They get vaccinated. They get annual checkups. They get to lay around all day and eat bon bons while they watch Animal Planet on their own plasma t.v. (o.k., I made that last bit up...) Why does this happen to me??? Why do I have to be so inconvenienced? Why? Why? Why?

Sorry, I had to whine for a least one paragraph. Once the incident reports were faxed to Animal Control (which was done about 2 hours ago), they have promised to go get a court order to remove the dog. I love dogs, so I feel a slight pang of pity for the animal. Not for the owners. No pity for them! I hope they are fined heavily. Fined so heavily that they have to sell the Firebird Trans Am in order to stay out of debtors prison. O.K., once again I'm getting carried away. I don't think they have a debtors prison in North Carolina - but there should be. Just for them. I can wish for them to pay my vet bills all day, but I just don't see that happening.

I think I'm going to go outside and check out the bird house full of fluffy, furry, giant-eyed flying squirrels. That should cheer me up for at least 10 minutes.