Oh boy, I’m freaking out.

I asked my eldest to let the dogs out to go potty, as usual, just a bit ago — probably the last time for the evening. Seconds later, horrid barking and people screaming began, and Russell ran inside yelling that the pups were in someone elses yard.

What to do when the house lights for the backyard barely penetrate to the swings, let alone the whole length and breadth of 3/4 of the back yard? Where’s the flashlight? Who knows. Mystery. Daddy’s tool, messy guy, he not here, we have no flashlight. So I’m clapping, yelling, calling for them pups and snarling is going on, barking, crazy, crazy, crazy … it was so inept. Finally Lothar came back through that dratted hole under the fence, and Russell took him inside, well who come running back minutes later … Lothar … so I picked him up and hauled him inside myself.

Come back out, Gretchen is still not back through the hole. I could hear the guy that lives in that house trying to get his dogs enclosed. Finally Russell said Gretchen was coming, but something happened, sometime, somewhere I have NO IDEA what … for the fence is way taller than me, privacy solid wood panels … so the guy says he’s watching the baby alone, and that’s why he didn’t get out sooner … and that he thought the dogs were locked up … well I know for sure they were roving their yard alone all day … I first saw them at 7:10am from my bedroom window, where me and my cats lay in bed and watch the birds first thing most mornings … they were both out there licking the dew off the permanently parked vehicle on the side of their yard.

Today our pups ran over to the fence barking several times, but NEVER tried to get through, and we had the hole clogged up with stuff on our side … the hole is actually on THEIR side, from THEIR dogs, and he’s promised to fill it in, since the last freaking out time HIS big dog came into our yard and scared the crap out of me near midnight, as it barked like a hound out of hell below our bedroom window. Eek.

So now, Gretchen was through, and Russell was holding her or something, I went and grabbed her, and she was limp in my arms, but awake. Weird. The guy might have seen something happen, but he didn’t tell me, just says “Is she alright?” I said I suppose so, maybe she’s just scared, I’ll have to check her over …

She has about three spots of blood, around her neck, throat, but nothing deep. Her back and side towards the rear were wet. She was NOT acting like herself, she’s droopy, won’t drink or eat anything, just stands there if stood up, lays in a heap eventually, or lets you position her however laying down. Her eyes are open, obviously stressed, but not making sounds, not soundling like in pain, nothing seems apparent …

So, was it a tramatic rape? That’s all I can imagine. She’s …5 months old. She was full of vigor this morning, this afternoon, this evening. She’s the sibling of Lothar, and the victim of his dominating eating habits. She started to look thin … and so I’ve been feeding them with total watchfulness, and giving Gretchen extra stuff, and she was responding beautifully, but still not fat enough yet today … so she looks horrible tonight, all droopy and oh I hope she doesn’t die … she has that look. All from going under the fence instead of peeing like she was supposed to do, and does every night, every night but this one.

It’s horrible for I have no one here, Frank’s not home, he could get more out of that guy than I could … I’m not about to persue “Your dog …” without my husband home. I have no vehicle, and no recourse with a vet anyway right now. If she lives, she lives, if she dies, oh boy, oh boy. Last time a pet died was September, and Frank was out of town then. I had to bury Cinnamon, our cat, and did a pitiful shallow job. Like I can do any better with a dog many times her size. Frank won’t be home until LATE Sunday night.

So… based on all that, anyone who will pray for us, pray that Gretchen will live, that she’ll be OK, or that AT LEAST she hangs on until Monday …

I’m so upset about this whole affair. This is a nice dog, due for more training, and was receptive to much love. It’s a mystery what happened, and my hands are tied as to knowing what it was, finding out, or doing anything about anything but petting that pup and washing anything I find needing washed, and tempting her with milk and meat.

I have her outside in the pen. It’s a mild night, and she is better off there than in the laundry room. I insist that she and Lothar be separate, and he’s better off contained in the laundry room. One last thing about Gretchen, I could hear her guts gurgling like crazy, so I was wondering if she was massively stressed and getting diahrea from it, so having her outside is also good in case of that …

Sigh. I can hardly believe this is happening. But since there’s no one to talk to about it, at least I can write about it, this is helping make a bit more sense of things, and at least I’ll have a coherent record of the evening thus far.

I’ll be sure to update.