Ugh. Okay... gonna make this quick cause I have to run, but I wanted to update you all on something.

So Friday night we had a BBQ with some of John's friends and his cousin Amy. It happened to be her birthday so I invited her along. Anyway, long story short, at 1am the one IDIOT frat brother (I like all the others, I wasn't a fan of this one) goes out my front door (which we never use) and on his way back in, he lets Koda out and just stands there. John, with his sneaky 6th sense, walks in from the backyard and goes to the front door and the guy is standing there. John is like, "What's up?" and in the MOST casual tone ever goes, "I just let Koda out." EVERYONE ELSE in the room freaks out and jumps up. I grab the peanut butter, hop in the car and start driving towards the main road. The others thought they saw him run in the other direction and run that way.

So.. I drive around the block and when I get back, Amy grabs me and is like "We need to talk." She then tells me that she heard Koda growl and thought she was going to pull him away from a fence fight. Turns out that as she got closer, she yelled, "Koda!" and he stopped (to his serious credit) and she realized he had something in his mouth. They realized it was a cat, so Amy and the boys got there first. Amy grabs Koda while the guys pry his mouth open. In the act of this, the cat swings around and bites Amy on the arm. She's fine, but it bruised IMMEDIATELY. Cat has no blood, they think it's okay but it clearly wants nothing to do with them so the boys leave it protected against a shed and lean a pallet up against it.

We clean up Amy and Koda (Koda's ear is a bit scratched, that's it) and I tell Amy she should go to the doctor, but she said no she was fine. Next day, we're at the barn, our trainer (who used to work in an ER) goes "You need to go to the doctor to at least get antibiotics." I said THANK YOU and told Amy I'd pay for her copays and the drugs since it was my dog she was dealing with (she's broke). So we go... Urgent care said she needs to go to the ER. So we end up spending our girl's day in the ER (which was actually a lot of fun, lol). Me, Amy and her friend Leah went into the room and the doctor gives her two types of antibiotics but says there's no need for a rabies shot. The cat looked otherwise very healthy and fat and there have been no reported cases in Schenectady County in x-number of years. Protocol is they fax over the bite report to the health department and if they really feel she should get shots, they call. Yay, everyone's happy, we go home.

Today the Health Department calls. The woman is super weird and freaky about it. They want to send out a search party for the cat even though we went door to door already to try and find owners and no one claimed said kitty. She took down all of Koda's information and is following up with my vet to make sure he gets ANOTHER rabies booster (even though it isn't due for another year) and is now freaking poor Amy out.

What a nightmare.

Yikes! What a nightmare!

I'm glad you have Koda back!
And I'm glad to hear Koda and Amy are fine (I hope!).

I think it's just a disgruntled state worker, but now poor Amy is freaking out.

But I tell you, going door-to-door in my neighborhood asking if anyone owned that cat was the scariest moment of my life. I was half expecting someone to say it was theirs, the cat was dead and they wanted to put Koda down. I'm not sure how strict the animal laws are around here...but that was not a pleasant feeling.

FWIW- the cat didn't have a collar and was outside at 1am. I'm guessing it was a stray, but I am very much hoping that it didn't die alone, painfully slow. We send out good thoughts to said kitty...wherever he is.

OK, first of all that guy is A TOTAL MORON!!! I'm sorry, but he is! I would be so FURIOUS if somebody came to my house and did that! The morning after my bachlorette and Ivan's bachelor party one of his friends did something stupid like this too! I had stayed at my friends house and Ivan had his bachlor party here at my house (huge mistake). I get home and not only is the HOUSE A COMPLETE MESS (beer bottles, liquor, food EVERYWHERE), but Ivan tells me that his friend (who apparently slept here) opened the front door, stood outside to talk on the phone, and left the DOOR OPEN for Mya to run out. She runs out and the guy goes to the person he was on the phone with "hold on, yo Ivan, your dog just ran out, ok so as I was saying". YOU HAVE NO IDEA THE BITCHING THAT I GAVE BOTH OF THEM WHEN I GOT HOME. I don't think I've screamed at somebody so much is my life! They were still drunk from the night before so that made it EVEN WORSE

Ok, so back to your nightmare. So, you think the cat was dying? How hard did Kody have him? Poor Amy! I'm sure it's nothing, but I would be freaking out too!

Wow Tori...I would never let that guy in my house again. BANNEDDDDD!!!!!! lol!!!!

Did they give her a tetanus shot?! I was scruffing one of my friends cats the other day to help medicate it and it turned in it's skin (which they CAN do) and bit my thumb. I didn't think much of it but yesterday it was still swollen so I went to the doc. Immediately gave me a tetanus shot and put me on crazy antibiotics for the next 2 weeks.

Tetanus isn't from rusty nails... it's from the nasty crap that rusty nails have on them from being outside (ie animal feces) and since cats lick themselves constantly in not so nice areas....

oh man Tori! i was waiting to here the story behind that pic you posted on FB! glade everyone is doing ok for now and i hope neither come down with anything! i have to say this happened at my birthday party at the house and it happened because the 2 non husky owners that were guest of a friend let them out the front door when they left!!! thank god everyone else was also leaving so all that my 2 wanted to do was go see everyone and they have a good recall when not in chase of something! i can leave the front door open tell them to stay and walk to the side of the house and back and they will still be there. i know that will not happen if a cat, squirrel or dog it out side though. im starting to see why i surround my self with other dog owners... were all just smarter

Hope you told john said friend is not welcome over again.

It's a touchy situation. Without going into details, this particular friend needs an intervention. The next morning he was beyond embarrassed (because he is also a dog owner and his lab was actually HERE that night) and said it was going to take a while before he felt comfortable showing his face around here again. I wanted him to pay for some of the damages (again, long story that I'm not getting into) but John said that he felt awful asking him for money... I'm not happy about it, but when it comes to his friends, I try to let him make the decisions just like I expect him to do for my friends. If this happens again though, there is no way he's getting away without paying. And not for nothing, but he IS a good guy... he just has a problem that he needs to address when it comes to alcohol.

Koda is just fine. The vet said he agreed that another booster was best just to be safe. Amy is a little freaked out, but I asked the ER doctor TWICE if he was sure that not giving her the rabies shots was the right call and he said yes... and I would think doctors would be more likely to want to be safe than sorry because of malpractice suits and it's not like he was rushing us out or anything. He was very nice and explained everything, so I'm going to just trust in his judgment.

It was just a nightmare. As for the cat... Koda has done this before (to John's parent's cat). He picks up the cat and shakes it, but he doesn't puncture. I don't think he's doing it to KILL. The cat had no blood and didn't seem or appear injured but after he was out of Koda's mouth, it was next to impossible to catch him. The cat had no collar but looked otherwise healthy and we searched for him and the owner the next morning to no avail. No one has ever even seen the cat before. SO... we don't know.. but I'm just hoping the kitty just took off and went far far away from here.

ETA: She had a tetanus shot 4 years ago, so they didn't need to give her another one they said.

*big hugs* Ugh. That all sounds awful. Glad everyone involved is OK.

jbealer wrote:

i have to say this happened at my birthday party at the house and it happened because the 2 non husky owners that were guest of a friend let them out the front door when they left!!! thank god everyone else was also leaving so all that my 2 wanted to do was go see everyone and they have a good recall when not in chase of something!

I was SO happy Koda was already leashed when that happened but I was freaking regardless thinking J&S were going to flee!! Heart attack!!! Thank god yours aren't terrible like mine!

So sorry that happened- I wouldn't care, good guy or not, consequences! Everyone knows if they ever let my dog out they're dead.

John told me today that I have flowers in the mail from his friend and an apology coming with them... told you-- good guy, accidents happen... and he feels like an a**. I'll take pictures and you can rate the bouquet and let me know if he deserves forgiveness

The only want it can get approval is if it is an edible arrangement!

well only "good" guys send flowers, you should share them with Amy as she is the one that got hurt, or he should send some to her to! wonder how much shit John gave him for you to get flowers cant wait to rate them!

LOL. That's what I said, Jenn. That he should be apologizing to Amy I don't think John gave him any shit actually... he would have told me if he had. He said his buddy called him last night to give him a heads up and to make sure they got here.

WOW! What a way for your night to end! This is why I do not trust anyone to take care of my dogs. No one seems to get it that you can't leave an door open around a husky. I'm glad you were able to get him right back despite the cat trauma.

Nightmare continues... first off, no flowers or apologies. I'm still not MAD at him per say... honestly, accidents happen... this one just sucked.

HOWEVER... sad news... we did find out that the owner of the cat was our neighbor, and one that we like very much (the one that gave us the fencing). We thought they only had two cats, one indoor, one outdoor. I guess they have FIVE cats. The gray one has been missing since the night of the attack... well- no body, but we're all guessing what happened and are assuming said cat is dead

We figured this out when we were over our other neighbor's house drinking in the backyard. They commented how nice it was that we were able to keep the dogs out with us in the fenced in area and I mentioned how we need to keep an eye on them and that Koda got out the other night. Then asked if they knew of a gray cat in the neighborhood... and well, we figured it out soon after that. The wife took it well. She said, "It sucks, but that's the risk we take with an outdoor cat. If it makes you feel any better, he was old." My response: "NO! That makes me feel worse!" However, I could really tell that her husband was upset. She said he just had a bad day at work and had a couple of beers which probably made his reaction worse, but you could just see the pain on his face. I apologized profusely... asked if they wanted money or for us to adopt them another cat. She said absolutely not, they have enough cats. She was honestly, very nice about it. She was glad to hear we had gone out to look for him and to find the owners even if we didn't ask them. The attack happened a few houses down, so we didn't even think to ask them, let alone the fact that we thought we'd already met all their cats. None of the neighbors we asked had ever remembered seeing a gray cat, so we honestly thought it was just a stray. Again, the cat had NO collar!

Anyway... needless to say, John and I feel positively awful. The good news is that Amy can rest soundly knowing that the cat was vaccinated for rabies. I just finished baking brownies for them, and we decided to donate $25 to our local animal rescue (right down the street from us) in Jinx's memory (the cat) and put the memorial card in with the card we send them. I know it's not much but we're hoping that the thought will count and that perhaps the money can go towards saving the lives of other animals since it was too late for poor Jinxy.

So... that's the sad end to this saga I feel just awful. Recall training was on my list of things for Koda now that we have a fenced in yard... and I just feel so guilty that I didn't step up sooner to do it. Perhaps it would have helped? But honestly? I think he saw that cat the moment he stepped out of the door because it happened SO fast... and no matter the amount of recall training we did, I don't know that it would have had any impact on Koda's prey drive. Some of you know that he was a stray... and in the months that he was on the streets, I think he developed a very high prey drive and intense dislike for cats (any hissing or even mock hissing from us sends him into attack mode).

Wish I had better news to share with you all... :'(





OH- PS... not that this makes anything at all okay and I still feel terrible for my neighbors and what happened, but I'm also sort of angry with them... Jinx was an outdoor cat that they DECLAWED in the front. And it's not like they adopted him that way. They declawed him and then put him outside.... part of me can't help but think that if he had his claws, maybe he could have made it up a tree and safely away from Koda We also did find out that our other neighbor gave them the heads up about Koda getting out and attacking a cat... and the husband's response was "Well, shit happens"... so I'm really hoping his reaction and the look on his face really was from a bad day and being a beer or two in... Koda has never killed anything before (except baby moles) and I just don't even know how to cope with all this.

Oh, I'm so sorry Tori! I know you can't help but feel awful, even if you did ask around about the cat....but the cat had no ID collar! So how could you know? I'm sure they know how awful you feel, and you've apologized as much as you could.

...and whatever happened to that apology that you were going to get from John's friend?

cmanding wrote:

...and whatever happened to that apology that you were going to get from John's friend?

I am still waiting for said apology. Whatever... again, accidents happen... I understand that, but the whole situation just sucks.


I just feel like a horribly irresponsible owner

I'm so sorry this happened to you Tori, but it sounds like you dealt with it in a very responsible way. Even though you feel guilty, you did the right thing by telling them...I on the other hand....have a dirty secret to share.

Something very similar happened to me when I was walking my Mom's dog a few years ago (when I still lived with her). It was about 1130 at night and Sky just yanked the leash out of my hands and I couldn't see what he was after because it was so dark out. It was an older cat...and he shook it and it was growling until I heard a "snap" which I assume was it's neck. I was freaking out and could NOT unclamp his jaw...it was just absolutely clenched shut. Meanwhile we're on someone's front lawn and I'm crying hysterically and don't know what to do...
He finally managed to ease up his jaw and I put the cat down on the grass...it had no marks but was not breathing:(
Since it was so late at night I was torn on what to do....and we also have very strict laws...any dog that kills another cat or dog in our area has to be euthanized....Not to mention there was an incident that year where a husky killed a baby (it was left unattended) and they euthanized it. I told my Mom about the incident (I think she was working nights) and she said we better keep our mouths shut.
I went by early the next morning and the cat was gone...I felt so GUILTY!!! And I still do. I wish I could have told them like you were able to tell the neighbours....but my Mom was so scared they would want to put Sky to sleep. If it were my dog, I probably would have told them...
I think that it's normal the husband reacted that way...but really "shit happens" and like they said, it was a risk they took when having an outdoor cat. A friend of mine has two cats that she pretty much considers her "kids" and she wouldn't even dare to let them free outside, she is way too concerned that they will get hurt, etc.

Anyways the funny part is (this is years later now...) my Mom's other gossipy neighbour always keeps mentioning that the lady's cat got attacked by some stray dogs that used to roam around in our neighborhood...

oh yeah...and Sky also has an extremely high prey drive. When we got him at 6 months, we would find birds dead in our backyard and didn't know what was going on....until we found one in his mouth. He also has a thing for squirrels and sometimes kills racoons in the woods:(
The first time my fiance saw him kill a racoon, he said it looked like something from National Geographic channel lol

I don't think ANY recall training really would help Sky if there were any of those animals in sight, but maybe it would work for other sibes?

So sorry that this is still playing out and not getting any better. I would honestly feel the same way and I sympathize for the way you feel and how everything turned out. Don't feel too bad, as you said, accidents happen. I think your gestures to make a donation and memorial are so thoughtful and kind. I'm sure they will appreciate it.

Tori you are doing everything right, and the baking and donation is a nice thing to do. These people know how well you take care of your 2 and I'm sure they know how bad you feel but again, outdoor cat no collar, that's just not smart. Accadents happen and at least they are not freaking out on you and it did not happen on their yard.
Hand in there and it has to get better!

Koda wrote:

...I just feel like a horribly irresponsible owner

You are FAR from that! NEVER think that! You are one of the MOST responsible husky owner! And it is NOT your fault that Koda got out, and NOT your fault the cat had no ID....not your fault any way you look at it.

Thanks everyone I know it's silly, but I'm just really taking this hard... poor Koda... his mommy hasn't been able to look at him the same way since... it'll get better, but it's still too soon. I just would die if an accident killed one of my babies... and I just feel awful that I have caused another family to feel that... especially since we're new neighbors!

Big hugs to you, Tori!....from me, Ginger and Storm!

Tori, I am so sorry that you are having to go through this and feel all this guilt! A couple of threads on here recently have encouraged me to make more of an effort to get Sabaka acquainted with our own outdoor cat. I actually hate having an outdoor / basement cat, but my extreme allergies have put me in this situation. As an owner of an outdoor cat, I would NEVER have her declawed (on a side note, I would never declaw any cat)! Taking away an outdoor cat's ONLY defense is very irresponsible. I do, however, understand the lack of a collar. Our cat probably loses 4-5 collars per year! We try to keep one on her, but often we just get tired of buying them and having her lose them! Even with the collar on, there is often no ID tag on it... Also, if I can bring an outdoor cat into the garage or the basement or somewhere safe at night with my allergies anyone could do that. A cat is most vulnerable at night or when it is windy. Even larger birds of prey can snatch a small cat at night! At least your neighbor knew that an outdoor cat is more likely to suffer harm and is being gracious about it. Kodi was just acting as God has designed animals to act; he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.