T saved her dog

I have two children, one boy and one girl. Actually they’re not children, they’re adults and they’re on their own now of course.

But I still have a couple of young lives that I’m responsible for. I’m talking about my two dogs, Lilly and Fenway, they are both Yorkies, and obviously I would do anything for those little pups. They’re actually getting up there in dog years now – they’re 12 and 13. But they’re in good health so far, we go for a walk twice a day, and they still love chasing a ball sometimes. But I know they are in their golden years so I’m trying to appreciate every minute I have with them.

I think anyone who’s a dog lover can identify with wanting to protect your dog from any type of harm that might come their way. I mean, I don’t want them to run into the street, I don’t want them to eat something that might be harmful, and I surely don’t want them to get into a fight with another dog.

My guest today goes by the nickname “T”. Not the word “tea”, just the letter “T”. She found herself in a situation where her dog was in trouble. And she had to make a split-second decision.

And I’m gonna do something here that I don’t normally do – I’m gonna tell you ahead of time that today, T and her wonderful dog are doing fine. The story does have a happy ending. I don’t usually have spoilers here in the opener, but I know some listeners would not want to hear a story if the dog doesn’t make it. And I don’t blame you – I wouldn’t want to hear that either. But you’re safe with this one.

So I hope you enjoy the story of T, and how she saved her dog’s life.

 

 

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Full show notes and pictures for this episode are here:
https://WhatWasThatLike.com/258

Graphics for this episode by Bob Bretz. Transcription was done by James Lai.

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Episode transcript (download transcript PDF):

I have two children, one boy and one girl. Actually they’re not children, they’re adults and they’re on their own now of course.

But I still have a couple of young lives that I’m responsible for. I’m talking about my two dogs, Lilly and Fenway, they are both Yorkies, and obviously I would do anything for those little pups. They’re actually getting up there in dog years now – they’re 12 and 13. But they’re in good health so far, we go for a walk twice a day, and they still love chasing a ball sometimes. But I know they are in their golden years so I’m trying to appreciate every minute I have with them.

I think anyone who’s a dog lover can identify with wanting to protect your dog from any type of harm that might come their way. I mean, I don’t want them to run into the street, I don’t want them to eat something that might be harmful, and I surely don’t want them to get into a fight with another dog.

My guest today goes by the nickname “T”. Not the word “tea”, just the letter “T”. She found herself in a situation where her dog was in trouble. And she had to make a split-second decision.

And I’m gonna do something here that I don’t normally do – I’m gonna tell you ahead of time that today, T and her wonderful dog are doing fine. The story does have a happy ending. I don’t usually have spoilers here in the opener, but I know some listeners would not want to hear a story if the dog doesn’t make it. And I don’t blame you – I wouldn’t want to hear that either. But you’re safe with this one.

So I hope you enjoy the story of T, and how she saved her dog’s life.

Scott
How did you get to age 50 and having never had a dog?

T
Well, growing up, my parents would not let me have a dog. They claimed that it was too much work having to take the dog out all the time. We had cats. Cats are so much easier. You just scoop their little box now and then. So they wouldn’t let me have one. Then, when I moved out in my 20s, I still had that mindset that it was just too much work. Where I lived in Virginia, it did snow, and I didn’t see myself going out multiple times a day to take a dog out in the snow. I lived in apartments or condos, so I didn’t have a yard to just let the dog out. So, I avoided that for a long time. Later in my 40s, I dated a man who had 2 dogs, 2 heelers, and I fell in love with them. When we broke up, the loss was the dogs for me.

Scott
Isn’t that funny?

T
Yeah, I miss those dogs like crazy. They actually became my dogs. They would follow me around everywhere.

Scott
But when you broke up, he kept them.

T
Right. They were his dogs. Still never owned a dog. I think it was several months later, I thought, “You know what? I have my own house now. I have a yard. I’m going to get my own dog.” Originally, I thought I would get a small dog – kind of like a cat, not too much different. I lived at the time alone with my daughter, and I thought, “If I’m going to get a dog, I may as well get a larger dog to also protect us.” And when you go to the shelter and look for dogs, the little ones are always swept up right away. The medium and larger dogs need homes more than the little ones.

Scott
That’s the way it usually is, yeah. So you would visit the local shelter pretty regularly?

T
Yeah. I got it in my mind that I was going to get a dog – this was in the fall of 2021 – and I thought, “You know what? I’ll start going to the shelter.” I went every Sunday and just kind of looked through what was there and visited. It was a lot of crazy dogs that either were barking like crazy or weren’t very healthy looking. They had feces in their kennels and things like that.

Scott
What was your plan when you were shopping here? I mean, if you saw one, were you ready to take it home that day or did you have a timeline involved?

T
I was just looking with the intent that I would wait until the following summer to bring home a dog because I’m a school teacher and I have the summers off. That way, I can put all my time into training the dog.

Scott
That’s a good plan. It’s like going shopping when you’re hungry though. Sometimes, you don’t walk out empty-handed.

T
After about six weeks of visiting the shelter, there was one dog that I saw every time I was there, and he was so relaxed, and he was just sitting in his bed looking around. He paid attention when I walked by, but he wasn’t up jumping and barking like all the other dogs. He looked clean. He looked healthy.

Scott
What kind of dog is this?

T
Well, the shelter says he is an Australian cattle dog mix. He actually looks exactly like a Carolina dog.

Scott
This is the breed that has the natural herding instinct?

T
Correct, yes. And he does.

Scott
Okay. This was in the fall, right?

T
Right, in the fall. So, starting about mid-October, I was visiting the shelter. The Sunday before Christmas break, I had gone to the shelter, and then we had our last week of school. On the last day of school, I was sitting there with my friends thinking, “Should I get this dog?” Because in my mind, I started thinking that, if I go back there next week and he’s not there, I was going to be devastated. I actually took a liking to him apparently. So our last day of school was December 23rd, and on December 24th, I went to get Kevin.

Scott
Kevin. That’s an interesting name. Did you give him that name or was he already named that?

T
In the shelter, they named him Wilson, and I think it had to do with his color and being like a basketball.

Scott
Okay. Where did Kevin come from?

T
Actually, that fall, I was taking attendance at school and started noticing that there are a million names that end in N – Dylan, Brandon, Brian, Benjamin. There’s tons of them. So I actually started a list and named a lot of my smart devices the same way. So I actually have lights named Gavin, Ethan, Sheldon. Preston is a fan. Mason is the thermostat. Aaron is the vacuum. Anyway–

Scott
That is the nerdiest thing I’ve ever heard, and I love it.

T
So Kevin was on the list. I’ve got an Uncle Kevin, a Cousin Kevin, and I thought that was the name. I knew that when people asked his name and I told them it was Kevin, I would get a smile or a laugh, and I do.

Scott
That’s true. So you brought him home, but he was on some kind of medication, right?

T
Right. I found out that the reason he was so relaxed in the shelter is because he was on anti-anxiety medication, and I didn’t know that. I had filled out all of the paperwork and was walking out the door, leash in hand, and they said, “Hey, don’t forget to pick up Kevin’s med–” Oh, they didn’t say Kevin, sorry. “Don’t forget to pick up his medications on the way out.” So I found out then that he has anxiety.

Scott
That seems a little sketchy.

T
Yeah.

Scott
Was that a little bit of a bait-and-switch kind of situation?

T
It is, yes. I mean, I’m not surprised, being that the shelter was overcrowded. In fact, that day, I didn’t have to pay anything for him because they had too many dogs.

Scott
Oh. Would it have made a difference in your choice, though, if you had known ahead of time?

T
No. No. No. I have a child with anxiety, so I’ve learned a lot about how to take care of someone like that.

Scott
You guys were a perfect match then.

T
Yeah. Actually, yeah.

Scott
Okay. What was your first night at home with him like?

T
When we walked in the door, it really didn’t occur to me that this was going to happen. At the time, we had two cats and three rabbits. When we walked in, Kevin was extremely overwhelmed by all of the animals, so he was shaking a lot and just kind of put my body over him and squished him and tried to calm him down a little bit, and then ended up exercising him a lot that day. So we took him out. I think we walked him for a couple of hours just to get some of his wiggles out and let him have some freedom. Once we got back, he was able to just kind of collapse and rest for a while.

Scott
How did the anxiety meds help with that?

T
I actually didn’t give him any medication once I brought him home. The only time I give it to him is if we’re going to the vet.

Scott
No dog likes that, yeah. It sounds like you two bonded pretty quickly.

T
Well, somewhat. I actually was a little bit afraid for about a week or two, maybe more. Because of all the other animals, I had to keep him on a leash inside the house or in his crate all the time and it was a lot of work when you’re trying to just make dinner and do the dishes and you’ve got a dog attached to you. So, I was starting to kind of regret my choice, actually.

The first night when he had zoomies in my bedroom – I didn’t know what that was – I got really scared. He would keep jumping the fence. The shelter warned me he was an escape risk. He kept jumping the fence, but then he would walk around to the front door, which would make my phone ding because of the camera, and I’d go open the door for him, and he’d come right back. So he kept coming back. It was several months over time when, eventually, he didn’t need the leash in the house. This was so that he didn’t chase after the cats and the rabbits every time they walked by. He didn’t need the leash in the house, so he was allowed to walk around more. He started being able to sleep outside of his crate. He was in a crate while we were gone for the day. Eventually, the rabbits moved out, and so he basically told me, “I don’t need to be in the crate anymore during the day,” and he started refusing to go in. So I was like, “Okay, you’re right.” So, so with more freedom and, you know–

Scott
I love this communication, this connection you have with Kevin. It’s great.

T
Yeah. And we actually started teaching him to use buttons to go outside.

Scott
Oh, how does that work? What kind of buttons? What do you mean?

T
Have you seen the little buttons they have for dogs? They press the button and it says a word.

Scott
Oh, just like a mat on the floor?

T
Yes. So he also used those for a while, but then decided that we were going to use more body language communication instead. But he communicates very well.

Scott
That’s good. Your relationship is evolving.

T
Right

Scott
You had a neighbor. Tell us about your neighbor.

T
My neighbor was a single mom about my age. Her daughter was fairly young – I want to say around seven years old. They had a dog named Pico. Pico is a beautiful black pit bull, and she barked a lot. I could tell over time that the neighbor did not have a lot of control over her dog. She didn’t seem to take care of her very much. I’ve never seen her take Pico for a walk. I’ve never seen anyone outside in the backyard playing with her. I’ve never seen her at the dog park. She just didn’t really get that kind of attention that dogs need to behave. When she would call the dog inside, Pico would not come. She had to scream over and over, “Pico, get your fucking ass in here! Pico!” And just the screaming, not yelling. We would hear her screaming at the dog even when they were inside as well. I’m in one of those houses where the next house is 10 feet away, so we could hear her all the time, and Pico was a little bit out of control. She would bark like crazy.

My trash cans happen to be by their yard, so whenever I went to get the trash, I had to endure the barking and she would put her face up to the top of the wall. Our yards are separated by brick walls, like the cement block walls. So she’d put her face up there. Luckily, she couldn’t get over it, but I always had it in the back of my mind like, “What if she did? What if she did?” Our front walkway also comes back that far to our front door, so anybody that comes to my house gets to experience this as well. From right in front of our door, you can see the gate to the neighbor’s backyard, and it already had a hole in it that Pico had put there. So at any time, Pico could have made that hole bigger and gotten out. I don’t know if anything necessarily would have happened. She’s not necessarily a vicious dog or anything. She just needed some care and attention.

Scott
She needed a responsible owner, really.

T
Right. Because of this, I had always had a plan in my head of, “What would I do if she did jump the fence? What would I do if she got through that hole? What would I do if she came running after me?” And all I had was to stand tall, put my hand up, firmly and loudly say no. That was what I had in my back pocket.

Scott
Well, yeah, at least you had some kind of plan. When you would take Kevin for a walk, would Pico bark then? I would assume that she would. And how did Kevin react?

T
If we go for a walk outside the front door, yes, she would actually bark from inside the house. She would slam herself against the window so hard, sometimes I thought it was going to bust open. He was a little nervous, but we just kind of went on our way. He was not too bad about playing in the backyard when she was there. I said that he was able to jump our wall. He would go out the back where we have a wash. He would go into the other neighbor’s house sometimes. Occasionally, he would jump up front, but he would never jump the wall into Pico’s yard.

Scott
It seems like Kevin’s personality is kind of the opposite of Pico.

T
Yeah, he can be very chill. He’s usually very quiet.

Scott
Well, let’s fast-forward to the day of the incident. How long had you had Kevin at that point?

T
That would’ve been November of 2023, so I had him for almost two years.

Scott
All right. And this was Thanksgiving week. What happened?

T
It was Tuesday, and we’re off school Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So, I come home, I’m all relaxed, I’m ready to take Kevin on a long adventure. I have nowhere to be, nothing to do, and ready to start the long weekend. So we get started. When I take him out, I ride an electric scooter, and he runs along next to me. To head out of the neighborhood, we pass the neighbor’s house that has Pico, the dog, and then there’s one more house, and then there’s the corner. We were about to turn the corner and I heard the neighbor yelling for her dog. Pico had accidentally gotten out the front door. I just kind of froze for a second and I thought, “Okay, this is it. This is when we get to see what happens when Pico is free.”

Scott
So there was nothing, there wasn’t a fence or anything impeding Pico from getting to you?

T
Right. We were in front of the houses. Kevin and I were at the corner. Pico chased us to the corner. Part of me thought about just continuing on and just going as fast as we can. My scooter can go 15 miles an hour. Kevin can go faster than that, but I wasn’t sure. I thought, “You know what? Let’s just have them meet, have the dogs meet.” So Pico comes over, and they’re kind of checking each other out the way dogs do, sniffing each other. Then, Pico started to mount Kevin from behind, and I thought, “It’s okay. It’s what dogs do. It’s no big deal.”

Scott
That seems odd, though. Pico’s a female, Kevin’s a male, right?

T
Right, yeah.

Scott
I hadn’t heard of that happening before.

T
Yeah, I think it’s just a dominance thing, like asserting your dominance. You know how some dogs lay down on their back and put their feet up when they’re playing with other dogs? They’re the opposite. I started getting scared and I can’t really describe exactly what was happening, but Pico started getting more aggressive with Kevin. So, at that point, I let go of Kevin’s leash. The reason I did that is I had a friend recently who was in the same situation and, because she didn’t let go of her dog, didn’t have a chance to run. So I kind of took that experience and said, “You know what? I’m going to let go. He can run way faster than I can, so I’ll let him go.” So they kind of went at it for a little bit.

At one point, they were messing with each other and heading back towards the front of my house. I was still at the corner. I dropped my scooter. Pico started walking towards me, and I did exactly what I had rehearsed in my head. Stood tall, put my hands up, and said, “No.” She turned around and walked away, so that was a huge relief. Then, Pico got more and more aggressive. The next thing I knew, we were in the middle of the street. Kevin was on his back. Pico had her jaws locked on his neck and was trying to shake him around. He literally shit himself right there. Let me also mention that it’s actually a myth that pit bulls lock their jaws. They just happen to be very strong and very stubborn.

So the dogs are there, and I’m basically seeing my dog getting killed by another dog, and the neighbor was right there next to me, next to the dogs, screaming at Pico to stop. As you can imagine, Pico’s not going to listen to her because she never has before. So I told her, “Do something! Do something! Get your dog off of my dog!” And she just stood there screaming. She didn’t do anything, didn’t even step in or try to grab Pico or anything. She just stood there screaming. I was screaming. I started screaming for help, hoping that neighbors would come out, but that didn’t happen either. Not even sure how much time had passed, but to me it was urgent. That’s when I went ahead and reached in and grabbed Pico’s jaws – top with one hand, bottom with the other hand – and pulled them open, and Kevin got free. It took him a second but, as soon as he realized he was free – he’s a smart dog – he ran. Not only did he run, but he jumped the wall into our backyard. Right after I pried open Pico’s jaws, she just sat there, she didn’t do anything. Then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, she whipped her head around and bit my hand. So I got bitten as well.

Scott
You must have had so much adrenaline right at that moment.

T
Yeah, I definitely did because I didn’t feel that bite. I actually didn’t know I was bitten until a little later.

Scott
Wow. I would think at this point your concern is to go check on Kevin.

T
Right. I went through the garage, through the house to the backyard and got him. I don’t actually remember how we ended up back in the garage, but the neighbor came over. She must have gone to secure the dog. Let me add in that during this time, she was also yelling at her daughter who was the one who accidentally left the dog out, so she came over and looked at Kevin. I turned him around so you could see his whole neck was basically open. She looked at it and she said, “Oh, that’s not too bad.” And then she went home.

At this point, I’m still pumped with adrenaline. I was supposed to have a friend over that day but, first, I called my friend Ken. I called him because, at the time, I was single and he was kind of my rent-a-husband – big strong guy, familiar with dogs, comfortable with dogs, and has his own. I called him to come over just to tell me what to do next. I had no idea what to do next. I couldn’t think of what I was supposed to do. So he came over and we took Kevin to the vet, and we got him checked in pretty quickly. We were lucky enough that the human urgent care was just a few doors down. It was a little strip mall. So while Kevin was being treated, I went over and checked myself in. I ended up getting a few stitches and a rabies shot. I believe it was the staff at the urgent care that notified animal control.

Scott
They’re probably required to do that, I would think.

T
Right. And I may have had some paperwork to fill out in regards to that as well. So after about – I don’t know – maybe a couple hours, I was released, Kevin was released. We went back to the house.

Scott
What treatment did Kevin have while he was there?

T
Kevin had a lot of stitches, but he also had a drainage tube coming out of his neck, I guess, to drain fluid. I actually don’t know the answer to what that was about but, basically, they said, “Yeah, it’s going to be drippy for a day or two.” So we did have to go back eventually to have that removed and have his stitches taken out.

Scott
All right, so you get back home. How do you come down from that? That just seems like the most exciting day ever, not in a good way. What happened that evening?

T
Tuesday night is trash night, so I did have to go take the trash cans out to the street. I’m pretty sure the neighbor was waiting for that to happen so that she could come and approach me. She did, and she asked how Kevin was doing, and I told her that he had stitches and a tube, and I also told her that I had been bitten, which she did not already know. She was surprised by that. She kind of blew that off, and she said, “I would like to offer to pay Kevin’s vet bill, but if it’s okay, I want to do it in payments.” At the time, I didn’t have any of my brain power left, so I was like, “Yeah, sure. That sounds good.” I know that she is on disability and working part-time, so that would be the reason that she wasn’t prepared to pay it all at once. When I thought about it further, I was like, “No, I don’t really know if I trust that. I would have to have something in writing.”

Scott
Yeah. I mean, you were making a decision there. You didn’t even expect her to offer that probably, and your brain is already kind of haywire from what happened that day.

T
Right, yeah. And I didn’t want to talk, so just saying yeah was the easiest thing.

Scott
You said animal control was called. What did they do? What action did they take?

T
That evening, animal control called me. Basically, that was just to get the information and my side of the story. I’m guessing that they also called her and got a story. They told us that they were going to come out for a home visit for both dogs. So, the next day, the animal control officer came to visit. They first visited the neighbor’s home, and I knew they were there because I heard all of the barking because Pico barks whenever anyone other than her family is there. She barked the whole time. I heard the screaming, “Stop it! Shut up.” And so I looked out the window and saw the van. I’m like, “Okay, they’re coming to my house next.” I was ready.

The officer came over, walked in, and was super sweet to Kevin. He sniffed around her a little bit, and then went ahead and sat down and waited quietly. The officer remarked, made a comment about the difference between the two homes and the two dogs, and she was like, “Wow, it’s much quieter over here. It doesn’t smell as bad.” So even though we had six animals in the house, I’m a clean freak. She asked us some questions. We were told that we had to quarantine for 10 days, so Kevin could not go to the park or out for walks. He could only go in the backyard, which was tough for him. Actually, sorry, probably not, because he was in recovery.

The officer did an evaluation on both dogs. She didn’t do much with Kevin. The animal control officer called me the next day after that visit. It was sometime in the morning, and she said, “Okay, we’ve done our evaluation.” The evaluation is a point system so that if you have a certain amount of points or more, that your dog is deemed aggressive. There might be higher levels than aggressive, but that’s the one I know about. So they decided that Pico is aggressive, and I said, “Okay.” She also told me there’s nothing that they do in this situation. I know that some states have different laws about what happens if a dog bites a human, but they don’t do anything. They mark it down on the permanent record, and if something else happens, then they might do something more.

Scott
So just the label aggressive doesn’t really have any ramifications then?

T
Right. That evening, I noticed that the animal control van was in front of the houses again, so I was assuming that they had gone to talk to the neighbor. I heard them talking outside in the driveway, so I thought, “You know what? I’m going to go for a walk so I can listen in on this conversation.”

Scott
It did kind of pertain to you a little bit, right?

T
Well, yeah. I mean, I could have probably just stood there and listened and not been looked at funny. So I heard the officer tell the neighbor, “We have decided that Pico has scored enough points to be labeled as an aggressive dog.” And the neighbor lost it, and she said, “How? What? How on earth could you label my dog aggressive?” The officer said, “Well, first of all, she bit a human.” And the neighbor said, “Well, she put her hands in the dog’s mouth,” basically implying that it was my fault that I got bit. Then the officer, I think, did reply with something like that. She had mentioned something about being let out, “Oh, that you had let her out without a leash.” And the neighbor said, “Well, that was my daughter’s fault. She accidentally let her out.” So she was blaming her daughter, which all the puzzle pieces went together in my head right away. She is not taking any accountability. Nothing’s going to change. She’s not going to do a better job training her dog. She doesn’t think she did anything wrong. She’s going to blame everyone else. So that really got me fired up.

I had been talking to a lot of friends. Of course, I’m telling the story to all my friends, and a lot of them are saying that I should sue her. I didn’t want to do that because it creates this awkwardness, and she’s my neighbor and it appeared that she was going to be my neighbor for a very long time. I know I’m going to be in this house for a long time and, given her limited income and the change in the housing prices, I thought, “There’s no way she could move. There’s no way. She can’t afford to move.” So I figured we are going to be there for a long time, and I didn’t want to create that situation between us. But it was at that point when I realized that she wasn’t taking any accountability that I decided that I would seek legal representation.

Scott
So at this point, you still have the same bad neighbor. She has the same dog. Was there any change in how you felt as far as being safe?

T
Yes. Both of us, Kevin and I both actually were changed. When we would go out to the backyard to play, if Pico was outside– actually, let me note that shortly after this. The neighbor got another dog, a little yappy dog. If Pico was outside and we went outside, Pico would bark. Kevin would immediately turn right around and go back into the house. He would not play out in the backyard. Sorry, I skipped a part. Let me go back.

The week after we returned to school from Thanksgiving, I got an email that a student of mine had been attacked by three dogs, three pit bulls, and I was like, wow. I guess I feel kind of lucky right now because this boy was in the hospital for 10 days. When the boy returned to school, I asked him, “How did the attack end? How did the owner get the dogs off of him?” He said that the owner ran into his house, he got his gun, and he shot the gun into the air, and that scared the dogs enough to get them off of him. When we started, when Kevin and I started being allowed to go out on walks again, I was absolutely terrified, not just of Pico, but of any chance of any dog getting loose and coming at us, so I actually started carrying bear spray and it seemed like a good idea. However, it’s very windy here. Most of the time it’s really windy, and bear spray is going to end up going everywhere. If I had used bear spray on Pico when she had her mouth around my dog’s neck, it would’ve gone in Kevin’s face too, so it’s not really the ideal weapon. I did research other ways in case something like that happens again. I could have tried to get my garden hose and aimed it full blast right at her butt. You can also stick something up their butt – usually helps. That’s not something I really want to do.

Scott
No. And going to get the garden hose– I mean, you might not even be close to a garden hose when it happens.

T
Right, exactly. And also, it’s not foolproof either. You can try all kinds of things but dogs are very stubborn. So when I heard about my student who had been attacked by the dogs and how he had gotten out of it, I thought, “You know what? I’m going to carry a gun.” I already owned a gun at that time, but I didn’t use it, and I also didn’t know how to use it. It was my dad’s. He had passed away, and I took it. I did know how to shoot it ever since I was a little kid, but I didn’t know how to load or unload or take care of it or anything, so I had my friend Ken come back, and we worked on that. We went to the shooting range, we practiced all the things, and eventually I got a smaller weapon that I could carry.

I’m a very small person, so carrying a 9 millimeter on me is a little awkward. So I ended up getting something smaller that I could carry. People were trying to talk me into something with a higher caliber, and I was like, “No, I’m not trying to hurt anybody.” I just want to be able to, like, make a dent, get out of a situation like that. They were worried about me getting– like, if I wanted to use it against an attack from a male, I was like, “No, I’m not really worried about that quite as much.” So I started carrying a gun everywhere I went, unless I was leaving the house in my car. Every time we went on a walk, every time I took out the trash, every time we went to the dog park, every time I took out the trash, when I went to get the mail, I had it on me.

Scott
This was a traumatic experience. Did you go to therapy at all?

T
I did. That was actually at the suggestion of a lot of friends who were suggesting the therapy, and so I did. I did go to therapy, was treated for PTSD for about six months. I didn’t feel that it was very helpful, to be honest. I just felt like that with time. Time was what was going to help me in setting up my defenses, being ready. The main problem was something that I could not do anything about, and that was just the fact that when I walked out of my house, I was afraid. I didn’t see any other way around that other than having my defense ready.

Scott
What was the result of the legal action?

T
I went to see a personal injury lawyer, and he took my case. He’s a dog lover, too. Basically, I just had to communicate with them every now and then. I had to send them all of my medical bills and vet bills and pictures of my wounds and Kevin’s wounds over time as they were healing. Eventually, he came back with a settlement, which covered the vet bills and then some..

Scott
How long did that take from the time of the attack?

T
I got the actual settlement check in August of 2025, so almost two years.

Scott
I know those things don’t happen quickly usually. Now, there is one good thing that happens here. What was that?

T
Let’s see. Last March 2025, I was at work, and my boyfriend sent me a picture of the neighbor’s house with a U-Haul truck parked in front. Got a little excited, but I did not want to get my hopes up. Maybe she’s just getting rid of some junk or moving in some junk or something. I did not want to get my hopes up. The two of us watched. Over a period of a week, that truck was there, and we waited– there was no for sale sign in front of the house, so that was another thing that we were worried about. But over time, it did appear that she was moving out. What ended up happening was she did a bailout, so some investors came in and bought the house and moved her out, and that was just such a huge relief because I honestly thought I was going to be living like that for many more years.

Scott
How’s Kevin doing now?

T
Kevin is still a little bit more cautious than he was before. He’s super happy in our backyard. We have new neighbors who also have a dog, who you wouldn’t know they have a dog if they didn’t tell us, other than the backyard. Our other neighbor on the other side got a dog, and nobody is scared. When we go to the dog park, though, Kevin is a little more discerning about who he lets near him. So if it’s a dog, he seems to know right away. If it’s a dog he doesn’t want near him, he will get in their face and bark and almost show teeth a little bit. Never snap at a dog or anything like that, just kind of give them the warning of, “I don’t want you near me.” He does that with probably, like, 70 percent of the dogs that he meets, so I think he still has a lot of caution in him.

Scott
Yeah. That’s probably a good thing.

T
Yeah.

Scott
Do you still carry a gun?

T
I actually do not, I think, and I told myself, “You have this defense prepared, and then you kind of let your defenses down when everything seems great, right?” Told myself I wouldn’t do that, but I really don’t like carrying it. It’s just uncomfortable for me. So no, I don’t carry it anymore. If we were ever in the same situation again, I would do the exact same thing and it could end worse next time, but hopefully not.

Scott
Well, I’m really glad this story ends with you and Kevin being happy.

T
Yeah.

Scott
And it sounds like with your neighbors, this is like a happy dog neighborhood now.

T
Right. Very.

Scott
Well, thanks for sharing your story.

T
It was a pleasure

Scott
I really enjoyed talking with T, and of course I’m happy that she and Kevin are doing well.

I wanted to mention a couple of things.

First, you heard in T’s story that the aggressive dog was a pit bull. But any breed of dog can be aggressive. I’ve encountered lots of pit bulls that are complete sweethearts. There’s a saying that I mostly agree with – there’s no such thing as bad dogs, just bad owners. Having a dog, and being a responsible dog owner, takes time and effort. Unfortunately there are people who have dogs who probably shouldn’t. And as a result, some breeds get an undeserved bad reputation. If you’d like to discuss this, come on over to the Facebook group and leave your comment on the post for this episode. WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook

And the second thing I wanted to mention about T is something she told me about that is completely unrelated to her story about Kevin. T is a high school geometry teacher, and she’s involved with this program called Teachers Pay Teachers. This is what she told me about it –

T
Teachers Pay Teachers is a website where you can go to find things that you need for your classroom as far as lesson plans, worksheets, slideshows – there’s all kinds of digital activities – really anything you need. You can buy things for a single lesson. You can buy things for an entire unit or an entire semester – it’s got all grades from K-12 – or you can also create your own things to sell there. So we’re selling to each other and everything is pretty low priced unless you’re buying an entire year’s worth of material, of course. But usually, worksheet activities run between free and four or five dollars.

Scott
We’ll have the link to that in the episode notes, and you can also see pictures of T and Kevin there – that’s at WhatWasThatLike.com/258.

Graphics for this episode were created by Bob Bretz. Full episode transcription was created by James Lai.

And now, it’s time for the Listener Story. Every main episode of What Was That Like ends with a short story that was sent in by a listener. Why don’t YOU send in a story? Just record it on your phone, around 5-10 minutes, and email it to me – Scott@WhatWasThatLike.com.

This listener talks about a mishap on a snowmobile.

Stay safe, and we’ll see you next time.

(Listener story)

Just thought of another little story. Not sure if it’s A-worthy, but here it is. Years ago, I was on a snowmobile trip with a bunch of friends up in northern Ontario, Canada. We were staying at one of my friend’s parents’ places. One day, we rode all day long and into the night. The snowmobile I had back then was quite a bit of work to ride, especially on corners. You really had to sit up and lean into them if you had any kind of speed going into them.  When we went out in the morning, we passed a hairpin turn that we all tried to make note of because it snuck up on you, and we were worried that we’d miss the corner on the way back in the dark. It was a long ride.

By the time we were heading back in the evening, I was getting pretty tired. When we were getting fairly close to being back, we met the groomer. After that, the trails were nice and smooth, but they were also very slippery. Being that I was tired and it was dark, when I came to the corner, of course, it surprised me. To this day, I still don’t remember the accident, but one of my friends was right behind me and saw the whole thing. Basically, what happened was the corner surprised me, and also I didn’t lean into the corner, so my snowmobile slid sideways and high-sided, which means it slid until the skis hit the edge, then it tipped on its side. When it did that, it shot me off headfirst into a tree. It was a tree that had grown into two trees. My head went in between the two stems and my body wrapped around it. I was unconscious for about five minutes, they say. They were pretty worried that I wasn’t going to be okay, as I kept making groaning noises.

When I woke up, the first thing I remember was hearing my friend, Greg, saying something derogatory that I’m not going to repeat here. My first words when I woke up were, “F you, Greg,” and that’s how they knew I was okay. My one friend had a snowmobile with two seats on it. So a few of them stayed with me, and the rest rode back to drop off a snowmobile so they could come back and ride mine back as I was in no shape to ride it myself. I still don’t remember parts of the ride back.

When we got back to the cottage, my friend’s mom was worried about me and insisted she took me to the hospital to get checked out. When the doctor took me in, she was in the waiting room, or she stayed in the waiting room, and my friend and I went into the room. The doctor did a couple of tests and sent me back into the waiting room for results or something. Just for precautionary reasons, he put me in a neck brace and also put me in a wheelchair. Well, neither my friend nor I, thought to warn my other friend’s mom about this. The look on her face was mortifying when she saw me. We had to quickly explain to her that I was okay and it was just for precautionary reasons. I still feel bad about this to this day. We should have warned her.

When I was talking to the doctor, he said when I get back, I need to buy a new helmet, and I said, “No, it’s fine. It only has a few scuff marks on it.” He looked at my black eye and my bruised lip and told me, “If you did that to your face with a helmet on, you need a new one, sir.” My poor friend had to wake me up every couple hours that night. I felt so bad for him as well as my other friend’s mom. Aside from facial marks, the only injuries I had were a couple broken or cracked ribs. I consider myself very lucky because a little faster into that corner or a little more either way, and I might not be here to tell the story.