berkleysdad
Boxer Pal
I know this is a long story, but it is worth reading! We have a 10 month old boxer named Berkley and we love him to death. He the first dog my wife and I have had of our own. About a month ago we decided to adopt a lab puppy (we named her Breezy) from the local SPCA and they really enjoy playing with each other and get along great. Yesterday morning when I got home from work, the dogs were downstairs playing and all of the sudden it sounded like the worst dog fight you have ever heard. My wife and I ran downstairs and found Berkley on his back with Breezy standing over him. It looked like she had a hold of his throat and would not let go. It was obvious that Berkley was having a hard time breathing. I tried to pull Breezy off of Berkley but she would not move. Knowing that I was going to get bitten, I began trying to pull Breezy's mouth open. When I was finally able to get her mouth open, I noticed that Berkley's collar had gotten stuck around her lower jaw and was twisted several times. This prevented me from being able to get the collar off of her jaw. By now, Berkley was completely unable to breath and was foaming at the mouth, his eyes were huge and looking at me like "help me dad." I remembered that I had a pocket knife and began trying to cut the collar off. In the midst of them thrashing around I got seven punctures to my hands and fingers from bites, and cut my hand with the knife two times. My wife realized that I was having a hard time cutting the collar and ran to the kitchen to get scissors. By the time she got back downstairs, Berkley had a lot of blood running out of his nose and still could not breathe. Finally I was able to get the collar cut off and began checking on Berkley. After about five minutes he seems to be okay, but I rushed him to the emergency vet to get checked. Thankfully, after checking x-rays and blood work, the vet said that he would be okay but that he would be sore for several days. I can't tell you how scared my wife and I were when all of this was going on, and the worst part was him looking to me for help and I felt like nothing I was doing was going to save him. From now on no collars will be worn while they are inside or in the back yard, only when going out front or on a walk. Also, the collar that Berkley had on was the kind that you have to loop through like a belt, we will only buy ones with the plastic buckles from now on. I would have never thought that something like this could have happened when we bought the collars, so keep this in mind next time you are picking one out. Thank the Lord that we both were home, I can't imagine losing Berkley in a situation that could have been prevented!
