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About noon on January 24, 2010, our lives changed forever...

We heard a lot of growling and barking in our backyard and ran to the window to see what it was. We found our 14-year old Black Lab, Duke, being attacked by two of the neighbors dogs. Both dogs were about his size, but much younger and agile than Duke. One dog had Duke's shoulder in it's mouth pulling one direction and the other dog had Duke's tail in it's mouth pulling another direction; literally trying to tear him in half.

While I stood there in shock, my quick-thinking husband ran out with a large stick to batter the dogs away from Duke. By the time he got out there, Duke had already been released from their grasp and he was limping back to the doghouse for safety. My husband ran to the dog run gate to close it. Just as he was shutting the gate, one of the dogs came lunging at him full force. Luckily, the gate closed just in time and the dog didn't get him.

As I was calling the dogs owners and leaving them a message about what had happened, my husband ran back into the house to get his gun. I hung up from leaving the neighbors a message and called the sheriff begging them to hurry as my husband was getting ready to kill the attack dogs. My husband came running down the stairs with his gun and I took it away from him pleading with him that the dogs were no longer threatening our dogs, they were just pacing in our backyard. I finally convinced him that shooting the dogs after-the-fact was the wrong thing to do and got the gun away from him. (I could see pictures in my mind of my husband being drug away in handcuffs for killing the attack dogs.)

We went out to the garage to see how the dogs were doing and found what truly looked like a bloody, horror movie. It was awful. Duke's tail was barely attached and his shoulder was gushing blood. As we loaded him into the car to take him to the animal hospital, the Animal Control Officer from Douglas County arrived and looked him over. She was flabbergasted at the scene and told me she would do everything she could to get us justice, but she couldn't promise anything.

My son and I left to take Duke to the animal hospital. When we arrived at the animal hospital, we had to wait for what seemed like forever, as it was apparently a very busy day for emergencies. While we were waiting, my husband called and asked if I could come back home and get our other dog, Delilah, as she had a large gash in her stomach. We hadn't noticed this before because she was hiding in the doghouse. In all the chaos, it had never dawned on any of us to check her for wounds. You can only imagine how terrible we felt to make her wait for so long.

I left my son with Duke at the animal hospital and came back home to get Delilah while my husband handled all the reports/statements to the sheriff and animal control officers. When I arrived back home, the owners of the attack dogs showed up to claim their "poor dogs" who "have never done anything like this before." My husband asked the owner to come look at Delilah's stomach which had a 4" by 1" gash in the center of it, where you could see her insides quite clearly. To which the owner replied, "They've never done this before and I'm sure it will never happen again." She never once apologized or asked if she could help. That should have been my first clue.

As I was pulling out of the driveway with Delilah on my way back to the hospital, the animal control officer told me she was giving the dogs back to their rightful owners. When I begged her not to, she plainly said, "Dogs are personal property; just like your car or your furniture. There's nothing I can do about it. That's the law. Had your husband let the dog get him just once, we could kill it, but he didn't." LIKE IT WAS HIS FAULT FOR PROTECTING HIMSELF!!!!! I begged her to reconsider as the owners had proven themselves to be irresponsible dog-owners in the past several times before this and that we were lucky it wasn't our son out there playing today instead of our dogs. She gave the dogs back to their owners and I went to the hospital with Delilah.

At the hospital, we were told that their injuries were so severe that they would both need hours of surgery  to piece them back together. So, we left them at the hospital and came home for the long wait.

When I returned home, I got the scoop from my husband about the laws and such. I then called the officer so she could explain to me what my husband had. (He was so upset, I just wanted to make sure that I had heard everything right.) I was told that if we filed a written complaint, the dog owners would be charged with a Class 3 Misdemeanor, possible jail time, and a large fine; all of which I knew they didn't have the money for. These are people who are constantly struggling. (They only have 2 sides of their house painted because they supposedly couldn't afford to buy the paint for the rest.) So, being the pushover that I am, I called the dog owner and explained to her what the vet said and how much it was estimated to cost. She burst into tears and explained how they did not have the money to pay for it and that they had terrible credit and on and on and on. I firmly, but very nicely, explained that she needed to contact her parents, other family members, her boss, whoever she needed to, so that the bill was paid when I arrived to get my dogs the next day at the hospital.

In the meantime, we waited on pins and needles for word from the doctor. At 10:30pm, the doctor called and said both of our dogs were out of surgery and were doing well, but very sedated. The next day when we went to pick the dogs up, I was happily surprised that $900 of the bill had been paid by the attack dogs' owners, but the remaining bill was left for me to pay.

Upon getting Duke and Delilah home and getting them settled in their new area with foam bedding and sheets and blankets and lots of medicines, one of my friends called telling me that sometimes homeowners insurance covers this type of thing. It was too late for me to check with my insurance, but I let the attack dog owner know, and she told me she would call right away the next morning. She did and found out good news. Homeowners insurance does cover animal to animal attacks, as long as they knew you had dogs in the first place. Luckily, they did, and the insurance adjuster has been wonderful to work with. I really pressed the issue with the dog owner though that I would give them 1 week to have their dogs put down and if they decided not to, then we would file the complaint. They decided not to euthanize their dogs because they somehow "know they will never do this again". As you can imagine, I was livid and filed the complaint within the hour.

In the last two weeks, I have not been able to leave the house for any longer than 3 hours at a time due to medicine times, feeding times, potty times, bedding changes and wound cleaning. My business has been sorely affected and my mind is obviously elsewhere, along with very little sleep. We have put our heart and souls into getting our dogs healthy again, but Friday night, Duke took a turn for the worse. A MRSA infection had ravaged his body and his pain was so awful, he wouldn't move or look at us, couldn't eat, drink or take his medicine, so we knew it was time to give up. On Saturday, 2/6/2010, Duke went to heaven. I never in a million years would have guessed this pain would be so gut-wrenching and that I would feel so empty. Delilah is so lonely, she won't eat or drink, and she only goes out side to howl her sorrows into the wind.

Since then, the attack dog owners have been ticketed and charged with a Class 3 Misdemeanor, the attack dogs have been taken into custody at Douglas County until April's arraignment. And all we've been told by Douglas County Animal Control is that if the arraignment doesn't go as planned, we will be subpoenaed to appear in court to state our side of the story. We were also told that if the arraignment does go well and the dog owners are given the attack dogs back, we will NOT be notified. There's a great law at work!

So, where is the positive message in all this? I'm not sure. I did learn that homeowners insurance with American Family Insurance covers this type of situation and that's something I plan to share with my clients and fellow agents. I learned that Veterinarian's at VCA Douglas County Animal Hospital care more about their patients than any human doctor I've ever been to. I have also learned that when times are tough, family huddles together and finds a renewed love for one another and real friends come out of the woodwork to help in any way they can.

I pray nobody else ever has to go through this in their lifetime. Pets are a huge source of love in the family unit and their importance should never be taken for granted.

Rest in peace, Dukarai "Leader of Happiness" Lambrecht 2/27/1996 - 2/6/2010

Roni Lambrecht, REALTOR®,SFR, TRC, MCP, SCLC, CNSA