A Walk Too Far From Home

By Kelly DiMuccio

A tragic event occurred in March of 2007, an event that brought sadness to our family. This unexpected event brought many changes in our house. It is something that I will remember for a long time.

Sunday morning on March 25th, my mom and dad and I went on a walk with our little dog Emma. We walked up towards Mount Nittany Middle School and then walked down to Brandywine Drive. I was holding Emma’s leash as we walked. About halfway down Brandywine, we saw a large dog heading into the street from over by the golf course. It was a large Alaskan/Husky type dog. My mom asked me for the leash because she was cautious of this big dog approaching us with us having such a small dog.

This dog walked onto the street and right over to us. The two dogs sniffed each other’s noses, as usual, but all of the sudden, the big dog started attacking Emma. My mom was protecting Emma’s neck from being bitten, while my dad was pulling this big dog off of her. I stood there scared, for there wasn’t really anything I could do.

We saw the owner of the dog walking along the golf course on the side of the road. He was not in the street, not coming over to the scene, and he didn’t seem to be the least bit concerned about what was happening. My mom yelled, “Come get your dog!” The owner just said “oh I’ll get him, I’ll get him” as if it was no big deal.

My mom and I were screaming, and my parents were trying to stop the fight. My dad pulled the big dog off of Emma, as Emma was yelping. The owner never even called his dog. He just stood there. He eventually started walking towards us, and my dad handed him his dog. He walked back over to the side of the road with his dog.

At that point our dog was bleeding a lot, and blood was dripping from her ear. My mom and I were crying and my mom said “My God, your dog could have killed our dog. Look at the size of him. I am very upset about this, and I don’t know what I’m going to do about it.” The owner just looked at the ground. He didn’t offer to help or anything, and he didn’t even apologize.

We looked at Emma, and we could see that she was at least bitten badly in the ear, the whole way through. She seemed very scared, but she seemed able to walk, so we walked her home.

When we got home, her chest and most of her front was all bloody from blood dripping from her ear. We called the vet, and she told us to put pressure on her ear for 5-10 minutes to try to stop the bleeding. My dad did that, and the bleeding seemed to stop. So my mom gave Emma a quick bath. Even though the bleeding had pretty much stopped, my parents thought it would be a good idea to take her into the vet.

The vet said Emma had three puncture bites. One through her ear, one behind the collar on the back of her neck, and one on her right front lower leg. The vet said that these were severe bites and that Emma was traumatized by the attack. Since Emma had a condition called thrombocytopenia, which is a blood platelet condition, the vet was concerned about the attack and its effect on Emma. Emma’s ears were all swollen with blood pockets. We didn’t know what kind of internal bleeding could be going on.

The vet put her on antibiotics so she could heal. She wrapped up her ear, and put one of those halo collars on so Emma didn’t try to take the wrapping off. We brought Emma home and we were hardly able to get food into her to take with her pills. Later that night, we noticed that she was declining and her breathing was labored. She couldn’t walk.

We called the vet again and she suggested that we meet her in her office in an hour. My sister and I stayed at home, and my parents carried Emma to the car to go talk to the vet. Shortly after examining Emma, the vet told us that Emma declined severely and seemed to be headed into shock. She said “Our only hope is to leave Emma here with me tonight.” She said she would not leave Emma’s side.

My parents came home and told my sister and me what the vet said, and we cried The next morning around 7:15, we got the call that Emma had died in her sleep. The vet said that Emma was improving and she was encouraged, but her body couldn’t take it all and she just never woke up.

Emma was a part of our family and we grieved her loss. I was traumatized by the memories of the attack right in front of me. Our house was really quiet and lonely and you could just feel that there was something missing. It was a really unfortunate event that I will never forget. Since this tragic event, we decided to get another dog to bring energy back to our house. Her name is Bella. We love her, but we will always remember Emma as our first dog.