So……..this happened 30 minutes after I arrived home from work on Thursday.

Not a scratch on the Diva.

Pippi lost part of her dew claw.

So off to the local ER vet we went. I had to leave Pippi while they sedated her and stapled and sutured up her wounds. I was really concerned about her eye wound. I thought for sure they were going to find some underlying issue once they flipped the eyelid up. I was able to bring Pippi home around 11 p.m. that night. I stayed home with her on Friday. She was still quite loopy from the sedation and I just couldn’t leave her. I am lucky to have a very understanding supervisor. She knows my hounds are my kids. The pics above were taken today. She is healing really well. She isn’t trying to scratch at the wounds so while we are observing her, we don’t make her wear the lovely ecollar. She will have to when I return to work on Monday.

We are not sure what caused the fight. I was in the bathroom and Mitch was fixing dinner when we suddenly heard barking/screaming and both rushed to the noise. The altercation lasted about 15 seconds and took place in the middle of the living room floor. Both girls were on the their hind legs in a full fight. Mitch pulled the girls apart.

We muzzle when we leave the house and the hounds are kept in our den anytime we are gone. We muzzle when we let them outside. We have had Ziva for over six months and we have not had any issues inside. Outside, we have had one altercation between the girls. Pippi is very aggressive when she runs so the altercation seemed at the time to be in response to that. This is one of the main reasons we always muzzle to prevent anyone from getting hurt.
We thought we were taking every precaution to keep the hounds safe.

So, we definitely have an issue. Mitch and I both have never seen Pippi as an alpha female. We know that the Diva is definitely alpha. Now we are unsure if Pippi may be alpha too.

Pippi’s wounds were all superficial, thankfully and she will heal and be back to her normal self in a few weeks.

It could have been a lot worse so we know how lucky we are that these were only minor injuries. We do not want this to happen again so I made an appointment to have both girls evaluated by a dog behaviorist at the end of this month. I am sure there will be things that Mitch and I will need to improve on as well as the girls. We will do whatever it takes to make this a safe and happy home for all our hounds.

Maggie came into our lives at a time in my life when I needed her most. She filled a void that had been missing for a long time. Things always happen for a reason. And, I wonder if Ziva is here to help make me a stronger person.

Cueball says he does not want to see anything like that again. My sensitive boy is scarred for life in a different sense of the term.