Since 2023 – The Mauling

The night of the attack 1/29/23, winter weather was moving in. Ice and freezing rain was on the way. When Oliver was ‘detained’ he was not taken by Animal Control that night. That still does not make any sense to me, but none of us were here at home to find out why.

Instead, when Oliver came out of the woods up to my husband, a police officer took him and my husband followed the ambulance to the hospital.

For some reason, the officer opened the front door of my HOME, and Oliver went inside. They simply shut the door and left the dog that mauled myself and my daughter inside my house, for us to deal with.

At the hospital, we were told Oliver was inside the house. My husband left the hospital and went to my house. He removed Oliver from the house and put him inside The Coop. (the Coop was empty. I was waiting until Spring to add chickens)

The night I came home from the hospital, my home was a mess. The clothes that emergency responders cut off me were mangled and torn to shreds by Oliver while he was inside the house. My furniture was muddy and bloody, my house smelled like death.

That night the wintery mix had started to move in. The temp had dropped drastically. Oliver was in the coop and my husband was coming over to keep him fed and watered.

He put a pallet inside with blankets, ran heavy duty extension cords and put up heat light lamps, covered the top and sides of the coop with a large tarp to keep out the freezing rain, etc.

For 4 days Oliver was in the coop. All city offices and most businesses were closed for inclement weather. In addition, State offices were closed, and that’s where his head would need to be transported to within 24 hours of removal.

In the days leading up to Oliver being taken to our Vet, he was snarly, aggressive, his eyes were empty. He was not the loving dog that I had raised from 8 weeks old.

Animal Control gave me the option to (a) detain Oliver at my local vet for testing and 10 day eval before release back to me (b) have him euthanized.

I chose option B. I won’t try to excuse or defend myself for choosing that. I just knew it’s what needed to be done.

On Feb 2nd 2023, 4 days after the attack, 2 Animal Control officers arrived at my house to transport Oliver to our vet’s office.

The rest of that story has already been told.

As for the coop…it has never housed chickens, and probably never will. I have not stepped foot inside of the coop.

The attack was 1 year and 8 months ago. It is exactly as it was when Oliver was removed, minus the tarp and heat lamps that my husband took out. The door was broken and the chicken wire ripped away in places by Animal Control wrangling Oliver. Even the water hose hanging on the side has stayed. The feed and water containers provided to Ollie during the winter storm, the pallet. I want nothing to do with any of it.

The area just feels unsettling. It feels off to me. Maybe it’s a trauma response and will get better with time. But I’ve learned to trust myself. And everything inside of me tells me to stay away from The Coop.

Logically, I know it will have to be tended to. One day. But not today.