Recently in leash control Category

Sandy's former neighbor Lisa was at a Long Beach laundromat Friday night with her dog, Sugie Bear, a white furball of a Bichon Frise who is Lisa's constant companion. (That's Sugie Bear in the camera phone shot at right, in happier days playing with Sandy's T-shirted dog, Desi).

Sugie Bear was standing in the laundromat's open door -- she'd been taken off her retractable leash for the moment -- like she has hundreds of times before as Lisa was collecting her laundry at around 8:30 p.m. A man pulled up to the curb and opened his car door, presumably to get his laundry out.

Like many of these incidents, time probably clicked into agonizing slow motion for those involved at that point -- the man's pit bull dog charged out of the car's open door and viciously attacked the 2-year-old smaller dog. Both owners tried to frantically separate the animals, eventually succeeding. But not before the near fatal damage was done.

Major surgery and literally hundreds of stitches were required at the animal ER in Bellflower (VCA Lakewood Animal Hospital). Sugie is now home recuperating. But she's far from out of the woods. Aside from still being on large amounts of pain medications, Sugie is on heavy doses of antibiotics which doctors hope will prevent infection. The next couple days are crucial.

"She is the sweetest dog," Sandy said. "They literally had to sew the bottom half of her body back together. She is now fighting for her life."

On top of it all, Lisa lost a chunk of her thumb in the fray.

But that's probably nothing compared to the mental anguish of watching her dog go through something like that. Sandy was told there was blood everywhere in the landromat and in the back seat of the car as Lisa's friend drove the traumatized dog owner -- holding her screaming pet in her lap -- to the nearest after-hours pet hospital.

On the plus side, the owner of the other dog did provide a credit card on which to charge the surgery.

Probably all kinds of "coulda - shoulda" hindsight lessons can be learned here. But this is the main one in my mind: Dogs should never be allowed to simply "jump out" of a parked car uncontrolled. My dogs ride in the back of my vehicle, but after I open the back door, they know they must WAIT until I have a firm grip on both leashes AND give them the "OK" command before they are allowed to exit. 

In the meantime, be sure to send up some prayers this week for little Sugie Bear, the doctors who are treating her, and her owner. We'll keep you posted on the outcome.