A Series of Unfortunate Events

With apologies to D. Handler.

Warning: This post contains some graphic photos. And lest you think I am just too morbid, sacrificing my pups' safety for the sake of the blog, all photos were taken after it was all over.

The Bad Beginning. Early last week, I was home for lunch as usual. The dogs were snoozing in the sun as usual. Suddenly, I heard rattling and banging and looked out to see Jack pawing and nosing the downspout of a gutter next to the back of the house. I went out to see what in the world he was doing and heard scrabbling and rustling coming from inside the downspout!

I wiggled the downspout and the scrabbling noises became louder and a bit more frantic, and Jack became even more interested in the situation.

The Wide Window. I have a bird feeder in the front of the house that attracts many dozens of birds of different types and my first thought was that somehow a bird fell or got trapped in the downspout. I got a couple of screwdrivers and an adjustable wrench from the garage and removed the curved bottom piece from the vertical part of the downspout. The curved piece was squashed and it was clear that whatever was trapped couldn't get out by climbing back up the vertical pipe and certainly couldn't get out of the smaller space at the bottom.

Where it all started.

Jack almost got his nose pinched several times as I levered the curved piece off the bottom. At last it was off and Jack proceeded to try to jam his nose up into the vertical pipe. Still thinking there was a bird in there, I decided to move the dogs into the house to see if it would leave on its own.

I put Cap in his crate inside, and left Harry, Dyna, and Gracie loose in the house. Mimi was still on her tether outside with Jack.

I grabbed a mirror and after wiggling the vertical pipe some more, managed to produce louder scrabbling and more frenzied sniffing and pawing from Jack but no creature. So I put the mirror under the opening to see what I could see.

Imagine my surprise at seeing a squirrel staring back at me!

I was so startled that I dropped the mirror and broke it.

The Carnivorous Carnival. I rattled the vertical pipe some more and saw squirrel paws slipping out every so often. He wouldn't come out on his own but perhaps he could be...removed.

And here is where I made one of the bigger errors of this entire circus of mistakes. I put Jack in the house and let Mimi off her tether. She shot over to the downspout. I shook it really hard, a paw slipped out, and Mimi dragged that squirrel right out of the pipe!

Normally, when my fox terriers grab a small animal, they get it by the head or the neck and dispatch it in a fraction of a second with a good hard shake.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen this time.

Mimi grabbed the squirrel by the abdomen and the furry bastard wrapped itself around her head like a barnacle.

The Slippery Slope. Every shake of Mimi's head made the squirrel latch on tighter, and it was squealing and biting and clawing her face and neck. This made Mimi even more pissed and she shook her head harder. And because Mimi is a good terrier, she never let go but squeezed her jaws ever tighter, despite the jets of red blood shooting off her face and throat.

I was horrified. I knew the ultimate outcome, of course, but could not intervene to hasten it along.

I ran in the house, crated Gracie and Jack, and ran back outside to witness the final seconds of the battle. Mimi squeezed the squirrel to death.

As far as I could tell, all of the blood is Mimi's.

The Grim Grotto. After making sure the squirrel was indeed dead, I grabbed Mimi and ran out to the car and put her into one of the crates. Her face was hugely swollen and ugly bruises were already starting to show. The blood was still dripping but at least not jetting out like before. I had to hose the crate out later that afternoon and soak the crate pad before I could wash it.

Blood on the back porch that dripped from Mimi as I was carrying her to the car.

I dialed my vet as I pulled out of my driveway, and called in to work on the way. A tense 10 minutes later, I pulled in, grabbed my pup, and hustled her into the building where they had an exam room open and waiting for me. Two techs and two vets started swarming over her. Could they shave her face to examine the bites? Could they sedate her? I said, yes, yes, do whatever needs to be done.

Bruising.

The Penultimate Peril. Nothing was life threatening and in fact, one of the deepest bites was inside her cheek which the vet's write up described as "self inflicted bite wound during fight with squirrel." The squirrel had bitten her many, many times below her right eye and along her throat so the swelling and bruising were pretty horrific but the bite wounds themselves were not that deep.

Yeah, it does look horrible but it was more like scrapes than punctures.

The End. They sedated her, cleaned her up, and kept her for a few hours. I brought her home for the night. She looked pretty pathetic and was quite subdued from the combination of drugs, coming off her adrenaline high, and the trauma of the fight.

Of course I was leaving for a business trip the next morning (these things always happen on holidays or before I have to take a trip), so I decided to return her to the vet instead of the boarding kennel with the other dogs. The vet took good care of her for me.

Today, five days after it happened, Mimi is still subdued and doesn't even want to play with Cap. She's on antibiotics and deramax and plenty of rest and TLC.