Going running with Cali is one of my favorite things to do–it gets us both some fresh air and it gets us both tired out. After her “sprinter” pace for the first 10 minutes, she slows down and we can run together at a good pace for quite awhile.

Recently, we had an interesting run though: We were about halfway done with a run in the rain–down by the beach at around dusk–when a small, grey, terrier mix dog came flying out of the adjacent parking lot barking and yipping like mad. I kept the dogs pretty well separated, and eventually some guy came and grabbed the other dog. Cali seemed fine and we continued on with our run, but once we got home, we found a pretty good 2 1/2-inch gash on her right torso.

We were immediately off to the emergency vet. A few hours later, we ended up with a $250 vet bill, and Cali ended up with two staples and one of those ridiculous dog cones. If I could do it again, we would have waited until the morning and gone to our regular vet, rather than the emergency vet, and probably would have saved at least $100. It really wasn’t a huge cut, it wasn’t bleeding profusely and like I said, Cali didn’t seem affected by it at all. We had called the emergency vet and told them the situation, and they said to come in. But even once they looked at it, they said it most likely would not need any kind of stitches or staples. Eventually, after cleaning it up a bit more, they opted to staple her up.

We could have easily used some minor first aid on Cali for the night, kept a close eye on her, and took her to our regular vet in the morning. The doc even said if it was his own dog, he probably would have left it open to heal on its own. However, this was our first experience with this type of situation, so we went the safe route. I was also a bit worried about the other dog. What if it was a stray and had rabies? How were we gonna track it down and find out? The vet assured me that as long as Cali dog was up on her shots and is acting normal, then there’s nothing really to worry about. Good news for sure!

Two weeks later, Cali’s as good as new–other than a good-size scar and patch of missing hair. The staples were taken out about eight days later and she was on antibiotics for about six days.

We think Cali remembers that dog. About a week-and-a-half later, Feebs , Cali and I were down at the beach again, watching the sunset. Cali had been quiet the whole time, until all of a sudden the hair stood up on her neck and she got in her pounce stance and started to growl. We looked back just in time to see a little grey dog scurrying on by–couldn’t say for sure, but I think it was the same one.

 Cali’s plotting her revenge already!