As I have mentioned before, stray and abandoned dogs and cats show up around our area frequently. Zeke is a stray, and so are all the cats except Zoe. So I wasn’t surprised when our neighbor said that a very well-behaved boxer had shown up at his house. He said the dog had two collars and was trained to sit and shake. He got along with our neighbor’s dogs, and was, according to our neighbor, a very nice dog.

Unfortunately, Leah and Zeke found out differently on Thursday when they went for a walk. Leah said the dog charged out of our neighbor’s yard and immediately jumped on Zeke. This is the result.

Zeke and his unreachable wound

The dog sank at least one tooth fairly deeply into Zeke’s shoulder, and the skin opened around it. The raw area is about the size of a thumbprint. In my experience, a vet might stitch it, but it probably wouldn’t stay closed, so the only thing to do is let it heal.

It’s bothering Zeke because he can’t get to it. He licks the upper part of his leg, and he licks the blood he gets on his bed when he lies on his right side, but he can’t reach the wound itself. I have cleaned it, but it’s still so raw that it seeps.

I’m a dog lover, but this makes me mad. A normal non-friendly, stranger dog-to-dog approach involves posturing and dominance/submission displays. The boxer had been at our neighbor’s house for a few days, not long enough, in my opinion, for him to have established it as his turf. I think that for him to charge and attack with no warning indicates a serious aggression problem.

This dog has a problem and should never be trusted around other dogs.