oh my oh my oh my.
i finally have the time and the energy to type up what happened today.
first of all, jamin has been running a fever, as well as pulling on his ears, so i assume he has an ear infection. he and i stayed home from church, and mom took the boys. jerry always stays home on sundays, unfortunately, because he doesn’t even get home until around 8am, after working a 16 hour shift.
so jamin rested and i put some things up for sale (almost all the thing have sold – woohoo). i called mom to ask about lunch, and we decided she’d bring mcdonald’s home. later, jamin and i were downstairs, now i can’t recall what we were doing – probably nursing, when i heard yelling. i heard mom yelling but i distinctly heard my nextdoor neighbor, kevin, yelling to his daughter to get inside. it was unlike anything i’d ever heard from him, so i was intrigued. then mom opened the door, yelling for the boys to get inside, and the boys are screaming and crying. kc (our dachshund) ran outside. i turned to see what was going on – i heard that dogs were attacking jeremiah and they bit him in the ear. jeremiah was crying, and i talked to him a minute, but then i heard more screaming outside. i put jamin down on the floor and ran out. now honestly, what i was thinking, leaving three upset little boys inside, is beyond me. i really should have stayed with them. but instead, i went out to find out what was going on. what i saw was probably the most horrible thing i’ve ever seen in real life. the two dogs, pit bull terriers, were on kc – one was biting his ear. kc was screaming and howling in pain, mom was yelling at the dog to get off and kevin was hitting the dog with a shovel (he’d gotten the shovel out earlier, but i will backtrack). the dog would not let go. finally mom called 911 and kevin got the dog off kc two different times, only to have him get back on him again. the dog had no collar, so there really wasn’t anything to hold on to on him. the last time, kc had made it to our front door. in front of the door is our little fake garden thing (i try) and i’d left the little hand rake there. i grabbed it and started hitting the dog with it, trying everything to get him off kc. i am not kidding you, it was like kevin and i weren’t even there. this dog was just insane.
finally, we got him off kc, and i got kc inside. i thought everything was ok, then suddenly the dogs were both in my house! i don’t know if i’d left the door open a crack, or what had happened, but the boys were screaming like crazy and the crazy dog got back on kc! inside my own home! (it was then that i finally heard the sirens) i was so upset and yelling at him to get off and somehow he was off him and mom drug him outside by his tail. i’m so amazed he didn’t turn around and bite him. praise the Lord for His protection.
jamin was screaming so i grabbed him and checked him over – he had blood on his head and a red mark. i swiped it to make sure – the blood was from the dog’s mouth, from kc, but jamin’s skin wasn’t broken. he did have tooth marks though. this is when i noticed josiah wasn’t anywhere. the back door was open, so i went around screaming, “josiah?!” then “where’s josiah?!” i was told that he was next door at kevin’s house. i guess when the dogs came in the house josiah was standing there looking scared (which now that i write this, i wonder…did JOSIAH open the door, looking for gramma, and let them in?!?!?!) so kevin’s oldest daughter swooped him up and took him over there. (thanks for that hon!!!)
jeremiah ended up having one little mark on the back of his ear, after the swelling and redness went down. we figure it’s a claw scratch. jeremiah was so scared when he came in. he was just crying behind the recliner. 
when i finally got him to come out, he wanted his papa. he went upstairs and woke jerry up with “papa a mean dog bited my ear!!!” i hadn’t wanted to wake him before i was ok, but i followed jeremiah and started rambling and actually ended up upsetting jerry even more. he said later he thought for sure his heart would go into a-fib from being so startled (and that’s all we needed today).
here’s what happened before, after being pieced together by my mom and kevin:
mom came home from church, let jeremiah out of his carseat and told him to go stand by the door while she got josiah out. somehow he ended up on the ground and was crying out. she didn’t think anything at first (because he is a little whiny sometimes) but when she came around the corner, she saw these two dogs on top of him! they’d knocked him to the ground. he was crying and screaming, and she started screaming for them to stop, to go away, to shoo, whatever she could to get them to go. they wouldn’t leave him alone, or get off him. it was then that kevin arrived from church. he heard mom screaming, and went to see what was wrong. when he couldn’t get the dogs to go by just yelling at them, he went to get his shovel to just scare them. he and mom finally got them away, and kevin’s daughter came out to see what was going on, then they started after her, so he went around to get them away from her. and this was the time that i heard him screaming for her to go inside, and mom was getting the boys inside, and kc ran outside.
from the piecing together, i found out that the dogs were probably “playing” with jeremiah, but they are used to playing rough and don’t know when a child isn’t having fun. we also deduced, since mom saw the owners who happen to be mexican, that the dogs might not understand english at all. so “stop” “go away” “get” and “shoo” might mean “blah blah blah blah” to them. of course, that is all just guesses. we don’t know for sure.
we do know that the same thing happened two weeks ago with these dogs, and it was an incident with another dachshund. we do know that kc is hurt pretty badly and will have to go to the vet tomorrow. we do know that my boys are going to be scared about this for quite a long time. we do know that i was so upset that i peed my pants and didn’t even realize it until much later.
i found out from kevin that four (or was it five) police cars showed up and one of the officers came out gun a-blazing. they were promptly followed by an ambulance and a firetruck (did you know they are like salt and pepper? they aren’t supposed to go anywhere without each other).
why all this entourage, you ask? well that was pieced together by mom’s phone call with 911, which i’d heard her tell about earlier. the operator kept telling her to calm down, slow down, talk quieter…mom was yelling and talking fast and was of course upset. she went into the whole spiel from the beginning, and of course the operator was stuck on the idea of jeremiah being attacked by dogs. the operator kept saying “is the child ok?” and mom kept saying “i don’t know – i can’t see him!” so the operator took what knowledge she had, and we assume thought “these dogs are mauling the kid so badly she can’t even tell if he’s alive!” so she sent half the police force, it seems. we’re thankful though, because who knows if anyone would have shown up at all if we’d called about a dog being in a dog fight.
GASP SIGH and all other signs of relief and frustration. i still haven’t cried, and it’s still RIGHT THERE behind my eyes, causing so much pressure and pain.
i am so thankful that everyone is ok. even kc, who is in a lot of pain, will be ok. it’s not life-threatening. oh thank You, Lord for Your protection. i am just amazed.
please pray for ALL of us (my mom!!), as this was so traumatizing to the whole family. also please thank the Lord for His hand of protection today.
OH OH OH i can’t believe i forgot this. the animal control guy told us this dog will not be put to sleep. he said unless human blood is drawn (which even though there were marks on jeremiah and jamin, no blood was drawn) the dog didn’t have to be put down. can you believe that?!?!?!?!
i just wanted to post a small update: kc went to the vet with jerry today and got antibiotics and pain meds. he is feeling a little more himself. i also spoke with animal control, and they said we could go get a copy of the filed report tomorrow. if we want to contact the owners about reimbursement, that’s our prerogative. it all depends on what jerry wants to do there – so far, he doesn’t want to ask them anything. i just don’t know…part of me feels badly for these dogs, but the other just wants them gone. i mean, my poor sweet boys and my poor sweet kc…
the boys are doing ok. amazingly, no one had nightmares last night. when josiah and i returned home from wal-mart tonight and he heard dogs barking, he really tensed up and didn’t want to get out of the van at first. he has always been our little animal lover and i so hope and pray this doesn’t scar him for life! he still SOOOO loves kc and really wants to take care of him. 
we have to watch him to keep him away from him.
thanks for your prayers; please keep sending them up.
and i plan to update the blog at least once a week. feel free to yell at me if i don’t! 
I’m sooooo ready!!!
