Our JennEric Life

Jun

2010

Maybe I should've called it, 'The Saga of Libby Blue'

[get here late? read pt 1, pt 2, pt 3 or pt 4]

Six days.

That’s how long she had. Six days to miraculously shed her violent nature & become the great dog I thought for sure she would become.

(It’s really easy to slip back in denial when your heart is breaking.)

But each night before our walk, I would check out front for anyone or anything before taking Libby out. I knew I couldn’t risk it.

This past Monday night the coast was clear. And in the span of heading back in, putting the leash on Libby & heading back out the door, two little boys had gone outside to play.

Two little half Korean, half American boys who I know for a fact speak & understand English.

They’re maybe 5 & 3?…I don’t know. I’m horrible at ages – but they’re young.

Too young to be outside in the middle of our complex drive at almost dark playing without any kind of supervision.

I watched as they moved farther & farther down from us and when I thought it was safe enough, Libby & I walked out the door.

I had a tight grip on her. I had her attention directed away from them. I was going to run her out the front gate. That was the plan.

What I didn’t have, was any control over those boys.

Just as we turned away from them I heard one scream, “DOOOGGGGIIIEEEEE!”

Fudge….they’re running towards us.

I scooped Libby up & made a dash for the door.

But they had already positioned themselves between us & it. So I put on my best stern mommy voice & said something to the effect of,

“Stop! Stop right there! Don’t you come any closer. You NEVER walk up to a strange dog without asking permission first. You don’t know this puppy & she doesn’t know you. You two go back home right this instant!”

Libby squirmed a bit but remarkably she was still calm.

But the boys…spoiled kings of the complex that they are…walked closer.

FUDGE!

I kept at it - “go away, go home, stop, don’t you dare come any closer” – all those mean, old lady phrases.

I managed to get them to back up away from our door just as Libby began to growl at them & we ran back inside.

So let me just take a moment here to point out a great cultural difference I’ve noticed between American children & Korean children.

Every American child I’ve ever met when walking dogs over the years has always asked first – “can I pet your dog?” And when I say no (for whatever reason) they always respect that.

Korean children don’t ask. In fact, they tend to run right up to them with their sticky little fingers reaching out for them. And I have to remind myself that Korea is not really a dog culture & they have no clue how to behave around them.

I’ve also noticed that Korean children tend to be spoiled completely until they hit school age. Then it’s hours & hours on end of school and the expectation to excel takes over.

We got back in the house. I railed to Eric about the absurdity of two boys being outside at night and NOT listening to what an adult had to say.

We waited 15 minutes before they went back in & finally we went on our walk. After such a rough start, the walk went fairly well. No issues. But as we got closer to the complex I heard them.

The boys were back out. This time with their Korean mother.

@%&#$* Fudge!

So we kept walking – right past the complex, down the road – we just had to buy a little time. She looked like she was gathering them up for the night since it was just about dark.

As we got a good distance down the narrow one lane road, I looked back to see the mom ushering the boys, on big wheels & push trucks, out the gate and down the road towards us. And Libby began to bark & growl.

Are you @%&#$* kidding me?! @%&#$* FUDGE IT!

The mom looked up to see me restraining Libby, see Libby going crazy and…KEPT – WALKING – TOWARDS – US.

This was my worst nightmare – a woman with two young children walking towards the barking, growling, almost out of control dog.

I wedged Libby as far back as I could off the road – not taking my eyes off of her for a split second. I had to keep her under control & if that meant I got bit another ten times, so be it.

I called out to the mom, letting her know that this dog wasn’t safe – that she needed to turn back. But she wouldn’t. She didn’t. She kept coming.

By the time she was even with us I just about had all my body weight on top of Libby & I couldn’t look up. I had to hold her back.

I expected to hear a sudden change in her voice - a sense of urgency to get the boys away from us when she finally realized I was being serious.

But there wasn’t any change. She was completely clueless & calm – slowly taking her boys on a walk after dark.

Who the @%&#$* does that?!?

And then they were past us & I raced Libby home.

That was day 3.

Category: Jennifer, Libby Blue, Life in Korea, Our Neighborhood Leave a Comment

Jun

2010

The Story of Libby Blue, pt. 4

I had been bit

jennifer

[taken 10 days after the bite; read pt 1, pt 2 or pt 3]

She had bit me – hard.

The image above doesn’t begin to show what it looked like soon after it all happened. The entire ring on my arm was such a dark purple it was almost black.

I had thought about taking a picture at the time – but truthfully…and as bad as it sounds…I didn’t want the photographic evidence.

I was embarrassed.

My dog. The dog I had raised from day one. The dog I had worked & worked with for all of the 5 months we owned her…bit me.

I was a failure.

(At least that was the prevailing thought as all this started to unravel.)

Looking back at everything today, I think denial must be the first sign of responsibility.

While intellectually you’re able to recognize the seriousness of the situation, your heart just isn’t ready to accept it yet. So Eric & I started throwing around all kinds of ‘what if’s?’

“What if we tried” this…“What if we tried” that.

We explored every option – but inevitably, they all led back to the same conclusion.

Libby had become vicious.

Keeping her – even if we were on-guard 100% of the time, never took our eyes off her & kept a muzzle on her - it was too risky.

What if she got out of the backyard again & went after the farmer? What if she slipped out the front door one day & went after a child?

If she could bite me – her handler, what would she do to someone else?

And if you really want to get cold about the whole thing, what if something like that really did happen? We’d be legally responsible. We’d be financially responsible and the Army could possibly discipline Eric.

Through tears & heartache we agreed to take her to the Osan Vet Clinic on Saturday.

We knew we’d have to disclose her violent nature – knew there’d be no way she could be considered adoptable.

And in a last ditch effort to hold onto denial, we began to wonder if the vet clinic worked with a Korean group that could or would place agressive Jindos like her.

She could be some farmer’s watchdog – tied up outside like every other Jindo around here, right?

At least she could live out her life – the dog was only 7 months old.

7 months old!

Not even close to adulthood – and definitely not finished growing.

She would get bigger – become more powerful – become more agressive.

We had to do the responsible thing…no matter how much it hurt.

The problem was the clinic isn’t open on Saturdays & we had found out too late. We’d have to keep her through the weekend, all through to the next Friday when Eric had time off work.

It just wasn’t a good time for him to slip out early and there was no way I was doing this alone.

We just had to get through another 6 days – 6 days of crossing our fingers that there’d be no more incidents.

I wish I could tell you we made it through those 6 days.

But we didn’t.

[read what happened next]

Category: Jennifer, Libby Blue 4 Comments

Jun

2010

The Story of Libby Blue, pt. 3

Like night & day

jennifer

[read pt 1 & pt 2 to catch up]

It’s hard to remember when the new behavior started – maybe a month & a half ago? I’m just not sure.

What I do know is that she was escalating & there was nothing I could do to stop it.

One afternoon she was playing with the neighbor’s dog in our backyard. Something she’d done from day one. And when the dog went to take a drink out of the dog bowl I had put out for Libby, Libby raced up to the bowl & barked at him.

It wasn’t a pleasant bark. It was a defensive, territorial, ‘get-away-from-the-bowl’ bark.

It caught me totally by surprise – I could even see the surprise in the little dog’s face. He sat there, big eyes blinking – trying to figure out what just happened. Libby was his friend.

But something had changed.

Libby began shooing Kitten away from the bowl inside the house – the one that they’ve all shared before without issue. And it was about the same time that Libby began taking Maggie’s treats away.

When we went on late afternoon walks, she would suddenly try to lunge at one of the neighborhood cats or Little One, our custodian’s sweet little Pekingese mix.

At first it was growls & whines of ‘you-have-to-let-me-go-get-her’.

And it wasn’t long until she started to growl & bark at people on the street. Then she began growling at children – even when they stood 50 feet away.

We were still working on her leash training & so in order to have her focus on the training, not the distractions, I began walking her late in the evening – just before dusk, when everyone would be inside.

But every now & then we would still come across one of the cats or Little One.

And one night on our way back into the complex, Little One was standing smack dab in the middle of the gate to get in.

I took it as an opportunity to work on disciplining Libby, getting her to focus on me – not the dog, a chance to try to stop this behavior altogether.

But the more I put my foot down, the more Libby began to rail against me.

And then it happened.

In Libby’s desperation to get Little One, she turned as if to bite my leg.

I knew she was trying to scare me into letting her go & I wasn’t buying it.

But Little One did.

With the ‘rrraaahhhhwwww’ sound Libby made & how close she got to actually biting me…Little One, gentle soul that she is, began defending me.

She barked & barked & barked. Standing her little ground – fussing at Libby, which only made Libby worse.

I wound up having to pick Libby up & carry her back home.

It was beyond frustrating.

In the house, while yes – Libby was becoming a bully – she still showed signs of sweetness. And it was easy sometimes to look at her & forget the violent nature she was beginning to exhibit outside.

So imagine everyday with more of the same.

More worrying when I began to take her out if we’ll run into another animal or another person…God forbid a child.

Everything was spiralling out of control.

And when the boy scouts began setting up their tents in our woods, I had to find another path to walk her at night.

So the next night we passed a new & very territorial Rottweiler mix owned by an American couple. Even though he was in their fenced backyard, I was still concerned.

It was a struggle to keep her under control & just get past him – even being as far away from him as possible. She kept trying to wiggle out of her collar.

And I knew we’d have to walk back past him to get home.

I was tired. I was frustrated. So on the way back I braced myself for the struggle – deciding to just pick her up & walk on.

And she was not happy about it.

She wanted that dog. That dog wanted her.

And this time, Libby wasn’t playing.

It happened in an instant.

The pain shot through my arm – and it went deep.

It hurt like Hell, started radiating down my arm & I knew…I just knew that I had to be bleeding – and badly.

But I didn’t let go of her.

I kept walking until we were far out of sight from the other dog before I put her down.

Through tears I stopped to check myself out.

Two deep puncture wounds in my upper arm. She had only got me with the right side of her mouth – otherwise, I’d have at least 4 – and I was bleeding internally.

I got her home. Got myself cleaned up. Cleaned out the wound.

And I couldn’t stop crying.

Crying over the physical pain – crying over the emotional pain.

What were we going to do with her?

[read what happened next]

Category: Emotional Outbursts, Jennifer, Libby Blue, Little One, Neighborhood Dogs 6 Comments