Wild Dogs

OK, first I had to get used to the alligators down here. Then it was the snakes (rattlesnakes, copperheads). And, now it's...wild dogs?!

Tonight I got home from my trip up north. My husband hadn't come home yet and I was unpacking some things, thinking of taking the dogs for a walk in the field, when I received a call from a neighbor.

"Oh, you're home!, she exclaimed, "I thought I heard a car." And, then she proceeded to tell me that I couldn't go out for a walk because there had been an attack of wild dogs, feral dogs who apparently were living in the woods next to our house. They had killed a deer there. And then...

On Wednesday of last week, two ladies on horseback were crossing the field near our house when suddenly a pack of dogs came running out of the woods and started attacking the horses. Can you imagine? These dogs were between 35 - 50 pounds, attacking horses that weigh 1,100 lbs. Now, that's aggressive!

My other neighbor, John, was driving down the road and saw it all happen before his eyes. He told me he was happy that he happened to have a rifle in the back seat of his car. (That's one of the things that I still can't get used to -- everyone seems to have, and to carry, a gun with them. Bizarre to a city girl when seeing a gun usually meant your life was in danger. Now my life is endangered when I don't have a gun. People use them to shoot the alligators, the snakes and other threatening creatures...)

Back to the attack: John told me that when he arrived at the scene, the dogs were attacking the horses and the ladies were trying to dismount because they were worried that their horses would spook and then buck them off. John didn't want to shoot because he was concerned that the shot would spook the horses. At that point, a member of the hunt department showed up and with all of this commotion, the dogs ran back into the woods. The guy from the hunt department tried to chase them down. He caught up with them in the woods, but his gun didn't work and they started attacking him so that he had to use the butt of his gun to fend them off while he ran back to the truck to get another rifle. Apparently he was able to shoot one of the dogs. There were 6, now there are 5. Part pitbull.

We have been warned NOT to take a walk, not to travel alone. Everyone I know who likes to walk their dogs has been "packing heat," carrying pistols and shotguns and rifles. We are well armed here.

I don't know which alarms me more -- the fact that there are a pack of wild dogs living in the woods next door to my house or that all of my neighbors walk around heavily armed, and think nothing of it! I'm still getting used to this culture...slowly...