Strong, brave puppy recovering after a pitbull attack: Luke aka Po the Panda Dragon Warrior

Since I can remember, Pitbulls and other so called 'fighting breeds' such as Rottweilers always had a really bad reputation. But I would always mention to haters that it is not the dogs that are to blame. So the dogs should go into rehab instead of the owners (who instead then should get put down to - er sleep or well, not that drastic, but they should get a thorough value schooling and should not be allowed to have another dog.

When I watched Cesar's show (the dog whisperer), I would always admire Daddy, Cesar's pitbull and his patience and kindness as well as endurance in any possible case Cesar would encounter during dog rehab.

I was not lucky yet to meet a pitbull like that and unfortunately, Luke had a really horrible encounter a few days ago... (We believe it is a pitbull mix as the face is very much pitbull, but the size is just so enourmous and almost hip-high (for small women like me), that s why we believe he is mixed with labrador or another huge breed). The (himself also bully-like) owner actually lives in our (one-way) street with his own family and often keeps his huge, black pitbull running around without supervision, without leash and collar, a hip-high dark-nacked mountain of muscles and teeth lying heavily and imperious in the middle of the street.

We were coming back from a walk and the sun had already set - it was getting dark but was still really hot outside, a normal summer's evening so a lot of neighbours and their friends or relatives were talking in front of their houses in little groups.

His left paw on the upper side, third day after
visiting the vet

We walked into our street - as usual I had Luke on the leash - the prince of sun was carrying a few heavy bags. It all happened really fast. Out of nowhere appeared the black thunder and next thing I knew, he was all over Luke. I tried to lift him up, but was not fast enough and the huge, heavy pitbull was almost covering him already, heavily bumping his heavy body against my legs and hips and his nails rushing over my legs, but I did not feel anything at the moment it happened.

His owner called him over and over again (no reaction at all from the pitbull) and came over with a thing that looked like the stick of a broom. It probably was only seconds, but it felt like hours. While Luke was screaming in desperation, the prince of sun (seeing that the owner was only making his dog more furious while hitting him with the broom while ripping Luke's leash out of my hands), jumped into the scene, forced the pitbulls mouth open and pushed the dog a few meters away. He tried to lift Luke but BOOM, the pitbull had already come back and was again all over Luke.

His fixed right leg-axle (I will spare
you the other bite wounds)

A second time (the owner was still hitting with his broom causing mad fury in the pitbull), the prince of sun forced the pitbull`s mouth open and away from the screaming Luke, grabbing his legs and this time, while turning around to throw the pitbull further away found himself next to a wall crushing against it with his complete right side and face and the pitbull in his hands (with all people around us only standing right behing and next to him, being in the way and staring stupidly at him), threw the huge 50kg-heavy pitbull over their heads further away while the crowd run to the sides. (It was other people telling me everything afterwards as I only remember everything like a dense fog and did not see anything but Luke and the prince of sun, the pitbull and his owner, all bundled up in one horrible chaos.

Then I saw my very own superhero Clark Kent aka prince of sun in his blue shirt and red trousers-shorts coming close and felt enormous relief while he picked up bitterly crying Luke. And we went home, I even forgot the heavy bags that the prince of sun had thrown on the floor when the attack happened and only remembered them (they had our keys and wallet and other precious things), when the prince of sun asked me to pick them up. Then we entered our home, shaken, with no look back. The pitbull and owner and other neighbours, I have no idea what happened to them next. But the whole street was in complete silence (and that`s something I almost never saw in our lively street). The only thing I remember was that we arrived in our own house and HOME.

I have never thanked god more than the second, that we realized while examining Luke's horrible bite wounds, that somehow:
Luke's face, neck and chest was almost completely wound-free!

Luke was not able to get up and we were not sure, if he had broken some legs, we let him lie down and went on washing his wounds and the next day (a Saturday - why do those things always happenon Friday evenings!) went to the (very expensive) only vet that accepted home calls and was ready to come in on a Saturday, for extra cash of course. We did not care, most important thing was that Luke would be treated and receive some pain relief, the left paw that is still swollen and will get xrayed on Monday.

(Thanking god again for my home job) I am able to be with Luke 24h a day, treating his wounds and medicating him. (Thank god the prince of sun and I were lucky to have no bite wounds at all, only scratches and my legs, hips and arms are full of black and blue bruises.) The first few days Luke still needed help to stand on his less wounded back legs while peeing and was only able to slowly eat and drink out of bowls that we put right under his chin.

But somehow, our sturdy corageous little puppy is a bit like the Dragon Warrior and on the third day after it happened, was able to stumble on three legs (and even came up the first floor when I was taking a shower, I could not believe my eyes. We now pray that he really did not break his paw, he almost uses it sometimes but I guess the bite wound is so deep (on the paw and on the inside around the paw pads) that it still hurts very much so probably he will be too traumatized to use it for at least another few weeks.

He also always wants to be around us, even more than before and tries to follow every single step I do. He started barking with louder and darker voice than he did before, sure he already barked that way, but really rarely did it. It seems like it made him less innocent and happy-go-lucky and more mature and careful. But how should one even prepare an innocent puppy for a horror attack like this. No way to train him could prepare him for THIS. Our hope is that he will become his old, happy self very soon, will be able to run and jump again as he loves to do and will be able to use his currently worst left paw again that he seems to keep on hold right now, lifting it up almost all the time, sometimes leaning a tiny bit on it.

But we are sure he will get back to his own self because he is so strong and brave, when we call him and especially when it's foodie time, he almost jump-runs on three legs to come around looks like its old, greedy puppy-self often with a big smile on his face. Yesterday we jocked and said he is really like Po, the Panda Dragon Warrior (which we watched last night again on TV) - who thought he was never going to be able to do Kung Fu fighting, but his trainer realized he was trainable using his food obsession as a stimulus ;)

So here we are, Luke, my dearest brave little puppy, you've got yourself another few nicknames :D

LUKE aka THE PANDA PO
LUKE aka DRAGON WARRIOR
LUKE aka TEIMOSO (kind of translatable to bullhead or bulldog, our loving way of saying that he is being brave, corageous, and strong and persistent/insistent)