Our ordeal with the neighbor’s 2 dogs

UPDATE: 19 October 2012

Cutie is showing reactions after 2 days from the attack. The 2 brown pitbulls DID harm her. She has blood red skin on her front neck, chest and abdomen. It is red. Her skin is usually very light pink. She also has a bite mark on her hind leg / right thigh. Check out these photos.

I need you to share my story on your walls, email contacts, twitter followers because we deserve justice. And it won’t come if laws don’t change. We know who this woman is and she did not even apologize, in fact she insulted me after the attack. We want her to go to jail for physically harming us and causing us emotional damage. It is not possible if we don’t get a lot of attention. You can help by spreading the word. Please do this for Cutie, our dog.

Kuwait – 17 October 2012
Salwa – Block 10

NOTE: This incident happened in front of the residential building where we stay. It did not happen at RAH. Just wanted to clarify, because it seems like a lot of news are spreading that this happened at RAH. It didn’t.

I was planning to walk my dog  -on a leash- the day before yesterday. We stepped out of our building’s back side door, which takes you to an open land that the residents use as a parking lot, and then there is an extension to that parking lot separated from the main one by a long and a tall fence. My dog -a very friendly small Japanese spitz- started sniffing around as usual and we were both enjoying the sunlight.

Then we suddenly heard a woman screaming at the top of her lungs. The sound was coming from the extended parking, but I was not able to see through the fence. All I know that the very next moment (although it must have taken at least 5-7 seconds to happen), a young brown pitbull dog shows up in a very close proximity to us. And then another followed. And then finally the owner.  The owner, a young woman was screaming: “oh my god, oh my god” and calling their names and trying to grab the collar of one of them and pull. The two dogs were obviously off leash and without muzzles walking in a public area, with the owner having no control whatsoever on them physically or verbally.

Then all I hear is chaos. My world collapsed. I was devastated to see my darling baby in the mercy of 2 pitbulls. My dog was yelping non stop, really literally non stop. She was rolling from here to there, within the 1 meter circle in front of me, like a toy under these 2 big pitbulls’ feet and mouths. They were toying with her, and she was terrified. I saw one of them had his/her mouth on my dog’s neck. I had no frickin idea what they were trying to do. I was looking for blood on my dog’s body. I didn’t see any.

I was shocked, frozen for I don’t really know how long, but something that was not probably longer than 5-7 seconds. Despite the short time I was thinking about a lot of things. I thought about her age, that she is just 1.5 years old and she had an entire sweet lovely life to live. I thought that she is a sweetheart, she gives us so much love and never bites us and does not deserve this end, I thought that she’s been with us for only one year and we wanted to spend more time with her if not a whole life time. I thought that she is a happy dog and a healthy dog and all she wants is to be safe, live happily, eat, walk and play and be loved. Finally after these 5-7 second I realized I had to do something.

My problem is that I’m a thinker and I had no idea how to react, I finally decided to hit the dogs with my purse and try and grab my dog and run as fast as I could back home. I tried to bend and collect her a few times but it was not possible. They were all moving way too fast for my hands to be able to pick her up. She was trying to run away, then showing submissiveness so they don’t hurt her, and she was on her back and one of them had his/her mouth on her neck. I finally found that 1 moment of complete emptiness….

It was one tiny moment I swear. I saw her sitting down on her belly, head up, panting so fast, terrified and so helpless. I grabbed her swiftly, and firmly pressed her to my chest, surrounded her with my 2 arms and started walking off the scene towards our building door. Until then I was not hurt. As soon as I grabbed my dog, I became a target too. The shitty part is that they live in the same building so it is their territory too, and they did not hesitate for a second to follow me. One of them stood up on the hind legs and bit my left hand that was in the air (I have long arms). I had one target. Reach the door and shut it. The dog was behind me and I got 6-7 long scratches on my back and sides caused by his/her front paws, my top (blouse) got ripped on the back side and I continued walking.  The dog reached in front of me before I made it to the door, and tried to pull my dog’s leg and tail. My poor baby yelped. I had 3-4 more steps to take to make it to ‘salvation’. I pushed my dog higher up on my should closer to the level of my head and contained her tail and back paws with my right arm and hand, then tried to push the pit bull away with my left hand, and that’s when I got bitten on my left wrist.  I made it to the door, I entered. The neighbor’s dog was following me like a shadow, almost glued to me. I entered the building door, and didn’t walk far to not leave any space for the dog to enter. I turned back and closed the door on the dog.

Silence….

My world became mute…

The walkway between the building door and the stairs has glass doors on the side that connect with another parallel walkway to the outside of the building. They were open. The dog if smart enough and determined, and followed our scent, could easily find a way to get to us. I still chose to freeze their for a few seconds.

Horrified, pale, dog panting and shivering, I’m walking with one slipper, shaking, dirty arms, torn top, blood stain, injured hands and arm, scratched back. And scared to death!

No I can’t stop now. I need to reach home, no matter how much dangerous those glass doors appeared to me at that moment.

So I walked towards the stairs, it was at least another 12-15 steps. But I made it there, quick.

I do not fucking care what they were doing with my dog, I don’t care how trained or not trained they are, I don’t care what triggered them running towards us. All I know we had a horrifying experience, both my and my dog. I got bitten on my two hands, one arm, long scratches, and the most important the fear both me and dog had to go through yelping and screaming frightened and petrified.

I could not get over it. I cried so many times that day involuntarily. I handed my dog to the hospital without knowing if she was going to come back to me alive. I was scared to go out again the next day. I got sworn at by the owner of the 2 dogs. My dog was accused by the owner of the 2 dogs of being at fault although my dog was on a leash and her 2 were not. My dog yelped after almost half an hour when I tried to carry her.

It was a horrible experience for me, my dog, my mother who witnessed everything after I escaped back home, my husband who left work and ran to find a hospital that would give me the rabies shots. And I really want this woman to pay some price for what we went through. And if that mean that the price has to be paid by the dogs being taken away from her, I really don’t mind. After all if there are no laws to punish the owner, for causing us this horrendous trauma, then I don’t mind to punish the dogs to indirectly punish her.

I would like to thank the Royal Animal Hospital for accepting to admit my dog without any delays to perform a complete check up on her. Thank you RAH so much!

I would also like to send my love to all those who asked about my wellbeing and offered help and support online on the Cat Owners and Lovers in Kuwait Facebook Group: Ayda, Jo, Jameela, DeAnne, Bubs, Ahmad, Lana, Cathy, Elizabeth, Sherif, Sandra, Ceu, Sue, Amro, Areej, and Jehan. Sorry guys, some of your messages appeared later and I saw them just today but still makes me feel warm and I appreciate you standing by my side, it really helped to stand strong. Love you all.

And of course my biggest hugs and love to my mom who happened to be at my house that day -luckily-, our sweet neighbor Abeer who drove me, mom and Cutie to RAH, and the biggest gratitude to the love of my life my husband who rushed from work to meet us at RAH and kept me strong and warm all day long.

And all of the people who visited me and wrote either to me or my husband to check up on us and sent their sweet wishes, prayers and positive thoughts.

I don’t know what I  would do without each and every one of you on this tough day.

Peace off!