Buddy's First Stitches

Earlier today the girls and I took Buddy to "Black Park" - the newly-built park in the middle of the soccer complex. We actually headed over with Mitzi and Harley and walk around the soccer field for a few minutes together before Mitzi and Harley had to return to their house. I decided to stay and let the girls play and Stacy and her boys joined us at the park. Buddy was sitting at my feet when another family and their golden retriever arrived at the park. Buddy immediately became excited and started whining, so I got up and asked if he could meet the lady's dog. She said she was a young dog, but lived with two other dogs at home and was really friendly. Buddy immediately went in for "the sniff" and the dog was taken a little by surprise since she was paying attention to a little boy who asked to pet her. She started sniffing Buddy and all seemed normal until suddenly Buddy and the other dog went for each other with teeth! It happened so fast and I yanked on Buddy's leash which was attached to his harness. The other dog and my pulling on the leash caused Buddy to flip into the air and he landed on his back and then came whimpering over to me. It was the saddest noise he's ever made and he wouldn't stop! He huddled next to me and finally stopped crying out and I found a chunk of flesh and he was bleeding! The lady asked to take a look at it since she is a registered nurse and after looking at it, it seemed that the chunk was likely caused by a buckle on the harness. I didn't know what to do since it was Saturday at 3:30pm and our vet isn't open on the weekends. Thankfully, Stacy knew what to do and had me call the emergency pet hospital in Southlake. CK came and picked Buddy up and took him over while the girls and I walked home to get the house ready for a Valentine's dinner party we planned to host that night!

Buddy ended up being at the vet hospital for about 21/2 hours and when CK came home with Buddy, he said they gave him a local while they stitched him up and ended up having to do some internal stitching as well as external stitches. Poor guy! He was pretty out of it for the rest of the evening and wouldn't go out in the backyard, for some reason. Glad it wasn't more serious.

Buddy and Olivia just before we walked over to the park...before disaster struck!

Buddy's stitches....poor guy!