Tragedy happened on Mother's Day Night

Our momma dog and her puppy who is over a year old now was chewing on those meat covered bones you get at the store. We give them each a bone the other night, and took them back away from them after they gnawed some of the crap off of them. Tonight though after they had been playing for a little while, we were trying to get them calmed down so we gave them their bones back.
We don't know what honestly started it, but Olive (pup) had her bone on the bed. Shelby (Momma) had hers in the floor, Olive went after Shelby's bone and we told her not to do that. Olive got back up on the bed and Shelby laid at the foot of the bed. All of a sudden, Shelby attacked Olive.
After some rumbling around and trying my best to pull Olive off Shelby, Olive wasn't trying to hurt Shelby but just defend herself. Shelby was out for blood. I have NEVER seen anything like this happen in my life. Shelby here lately has been killing animals outside like possums or mice, things like that. She did attack a kitten, but we honestly thought it was just her natural instincts. Dogs don't like cats or some don't. We got Olive outside and Shelby to the bathroom. My husband had laid on top of Shelby trying to pin her down enough for me to get ahold of Olive.
We brought Olive back in the house, and under her nose but above her lip has a cut. She has a little cut over her eye, and under her eye. Her eye didn't suffer any injury. She has a few little cuts but very minor on her head and one on her neck. Her foot I think was twisted in the fight, but its fine. She isn't limping of any sorts.
She is fine other than just being shook up real bad. Allen hollered at me and said, CALL SOMEONE!!!
I didn't know who to call but Mom, I told her Shelby attacked Olive and Allen is bleeding, she said Im on my way.
Mom came over with a gun, told us that if we needed her put down that she could do that. She has done it before. Allen has a cut on his nose, and his thumb was bit but he is fine. He has some scratches, I made him take another shower to clean whatever cuts and things was on him.
We got Olive calmed down somewhat, she is in her cage right now but she is missing her Momma. Her dog momma that is, because they were peas and carrots all the time. She is really missing her Momma. Mom took Shelby over to her house, she will be put down tomorrow.
I cant have her in my house after she did something like this. She could have hurt Olive worse or one of us. I know what yall are probably thinking, yeah she could have killed one of us. I was honestly thinking of nothing but Olive. Allen was the same way. He said that the only thing on his mind was keeping Olive safe.
It all happened so fast, we don't understand what made Shelby attack her like that. She was out for blood, she was trying to hurt Olive and wasn't giving up. Olive was just trying to defend herself. Shelby is about 70lbs. Olive is lucky if she hits 30lbs. My other dog Sylar was in the cage and was trying to get to Shelby because she was attacking his little buddy. She will be put down humanely.
There is no other choice, we cant give her to someone else because she might hurt someone. My stupid dumb ass stepfather said, just give to her someone else. Put her on Craigslist and get rid of her.....How could I live with myself if she attacked a kid or another person? Poor little Olive is just a shook up mess right now. She is sleeping, but her nerves are shot.
She hasn't gotten a drink of water just yet, but I am sure that is nothing but her nerves. We are keeping a close eye on her, if she had gotten hurt any worse I would have called a vet and took her in tonight. Shelby just snapped for some reason. We don't know why, we are all fine other than just our nerves are on edge.
I told Allen, this was the first time in two years that I wanted to get messed up LOL. I know that I shouldn't have said that but I couldn't help it. Allen said well I could get ya a bottle of Vodka and kinda chuckled. We were trying to just make a joke or something to lighten the mood. I told him nope, gotta learn how to deal with this stuff and move on.
All in all, we are fine. Allen saved our baby girl. Olive is sleeping soundly right now.
Just one hell of a night.

April
I am sorry to hear of such a tragedy and at the same time grateful that no one was seriously hurt. I am guessing by your member name that your dogs are Pits. I am a great lover of the breed but also cautious as having been a previous breeder of pits I know what can happen given the circumstances.
A female pit who is kept in the house can be very territorial. I am guessing that when Olive first jumped on Shelby that Shelby felt the need to show Olive who is boss. It really doesn't matter that Olive is her pup. She is an adult female dog as well. Once Shelby got started she was in an attack frenzy.

The thought that your step father told you to just give her away is so wrong. As hard as it may sound to some it would be way more humane to have her put down. Can you imagine what kind of life she would have if someone were to take her and know the reason why you were to be giving her away. It would be a recipe for disaster. People who take dogs who have been in fights or have a history of fighting only want them for the simple reason of fighting. It is morally wrong in so many ways. Some may want her in an attempt to rehabilitate her but not many.

I almost lost my son due to a female pit that attacked him. She was not provoked and a family dog. She was my sister's dog. The dog was not put down against my wishes because as it was my sister's "baby". We moved shortly after that. My son was in the Birmingham children's hospital for 4 weeks. I am grateful to have him today. Very grateful indeed. About 2 or 3 years later I am not sure which, the same dog attacked my brother in law and my sister tried to get her off of him when the dog turned on her. The only way my brother in law could get the dog off my sister was to kill her then and there. Her jaws had locked and it was the only way. I hate it that it had to happen, when years before it could have been taken care of.

I can imagine that your emotions are raging right now. So many thoughts in so many directions. You may have wanted to use, but you didn't. Be proud of yourself for that. You and your family are in my prayers and if you need to talk I'll be here.

Its been a hard day, probably the hardest day that I have had to deal with in a long time. Adding to the fact that when I cry alot, I have sinus troubles that flare up. So the side of my head feels like it is wanting to implode, I have been taking sinus medicine though. It all just happened so fast that we didnt understand why she would do that.
We knew this was coming, but we honestly thought and I guess hoped that it would go back to normal. She tried to kill a kitten that Allen brought to me, but we all thought that it was her dog/cat thing. Then she did kill one out of a litter, and then another one from this last litter. I know that we should have gotten rid of her sooner, but like I said I thought that it was just "Dog hate Cats" kinda deal. She was never vicious to us in any way, shape, or form. She was always a strange acting dog, ducked her head down when you would pet her. I think back to the night when she killed that last kitten and how I flew in on her, i didnt hurt her but I was swinging at her. She could have easily hurt me bad, but she didnt. The only thing that I can even think of is she just snapped last night. Olive did nothing to deserve what happened to her. She is innocent, she was just sitting there chewing on her bone. Shelby just turned around and went at her.
I bottle fed Olive from about the time that she turned a week old until she was age to eat on her own. I am very protective over her. Olive is alot better today, she is playful and licking like she normally does. Shelby will be put down in nine days, she is at the vet's office right now. We have to wait the nine days incase she had rabies, which I doubt that she did.
We always kept her on a leash when she was outside, she never got out of our sight.
Mom called this evening asking how Olive, Allen, and Dufus was doing. Dufus being Sylar. We all call him names like that because he acts dumb. He is the best hearted dog out of all the ones that we have/had. I am attaching a picture of Olive and Sylar to my profile picture if I can get it to work right.

April, you can go to Gallery at the top of the forum once that page loads click on Personal albums and you can create your own personal album then upload any pictures that you want to put in there. If you need help, send me a pm and I will do what I can to help you.
Have a good day!
Dee

Hello April,
I am sorry to hear what happened. I hope that Olive is doing well now. And I am sorry for what Shelby did to her.

I had a similar situation happen with our pit, Rosco. You see we had him since he was 6 weeks old. And when he was 8 weeks old we adopted another dog, Milo. But Milo wasn't a pit, he was a miniature doberman pinscher. So he is a small dog. Well six years later after they had grown up together they each had a bone. The same size and everything. (The size thing doesn't really matter lol, I just mention it because Milo is a small dog, Rosco is a big dog and Milo didn't get smaller bone than him lol.) Well anyways, Rosco had finished with his bone, there was nothing left of it and he went after Milo's bone. Milo growled at him, didn't nip at him or try to bite him or anything. And Rosco just went nuts and grabbed Milo by the neck and was shaking him back and forth. My mom came in and started hitting Rosco, but he wasn't letting go. My mom and her boyfriend came in. And her boyfriend Chuck pinned Rosco to the ground and my mom was trying to get his mouth open. But he was still locked onto Milo's throat. She stuck herthumb into his mouth and down his throat. She said that she had scratched the back of his throat with her thumb nail and that is when he let go. I don't agree with her putting her hand in his mouth, I think it was a very dumb decision, but she saved my baby's life!

I took Milo to the vet that night and he got 9 stitches in his throat. We brought him home and the poor baby hid under my bed for about a week! He was so scared of everything. Before this he used to sleep in my bed with me, under the covers and all. He was my baby! And I loved him so much!

Rosco was taken to the Humane Society here where I'm from Saginaw, Michigan and he was put down.

It's a scary thing when dogs attack! I now have a dog named Butch who is a mutt I'll admit. His mama is pit and german shepard and his daddy is an english bulldog. It is funny because he is a big dog already at just 13 weeks old. He has the big ol pit head and the color, but the longish fur of the german shepard and he's got this big body, but he's got the short stubby little english bulldog legs! When I first adopted him I said that it looked like his legs had been butched off and then my three year old son started calling him names like Butchy and Butch. So that's what we named him. But he is a very good dog.

Again April, I am sorry to hear what has happened. And I am thankful that you and your hubby were not hurt! And tht Olive is alright!

Have blessed day ladies!!

Much Love. - Jazz

Olive is doing MUCH better now, its been 9 days since it all happened. Im sure that she has been put down by now but since my mother is being an asshole, she didnt act like she would call to see if she had been or not. Its in her name since she was the one that took her in. They had to wait to make sure that she didnt have rabies, but Im sure that she didnt unless she got it from a mouse that she killed in the house. That is a possibilty.
Sylar is doing fine as well, this has changed both of their personalities somewhat because I think Shelby kind of kept them on edge or something. Olive is much more clingy, but she seems to pay attention more and listen to commands better. Sylar lays at my feet all morning until I switch them around noon time. Right now, until I feel that she has forgotten what has happened we are switching them in and out of the cage. Sylar also has a bit of a humping problem because he hasnt been fixed yet. He WILL be fixed this week after Allen gets paid.
Allen is still having a rough time, because Shelby was his girl. He was really close with Shelby, and felt like he knew that dog's personality. He said last night, I would have never guessed in a million years that she could have done that. He said, if you had asked me if there was a chance, he said not in a million years. I am having some problems out of Sylar wanting to run off because someone dropped some puppies on Mom and he doesnt want to hurt them but he is a fatherly figure to any creature inside or outside.
I wish that you guys could have seen him with the puppies that Shelby had back last March. Me and Allen was talking about when she changed in my mind, I think it really changed her after she had those puppies. She tried to kill a kitten before then, but it seemed to get worse after March of last year when she the babies.
Allen said that he was not concerned for his safety but making sure that Olive was going to be ok. That is completely one hundred percent crazy I understand, BUT he loves these babies and he treats them like they were our children. You guys know the trouble that we have had trying to have a baby. Five years and still nothing.
My mother isnt making things any easier it seems. She always plays the victim in any situation. They are trying to get things ready for the big barn sale this weekend. My aunt and uncle have a huge barn that they hav converted into a store type thing where they have a yard sale when the weather permits. Yesterday, you would have thought that I was twisting her arm backwards and forwards just because I wanted her to pick up three strips for me. I almost told her to keep her money if she was going to act like that.
I wish that she could understand that even though its been over a week, there is still a hole over here. We had Shelby for four years, she became a big part of our life. Mom just considers them animals and nothing more. People that havent struggled to have children dont seem to understand what it feels like to have that hole and when you try to fill it with something else like these two amazing dogs that we have over here.
Its less than a week as well before the "little prince" graduates from high school IF he does even graduate. He still has a failing Algebra grade and from what Mom said, they put him in a special education class and the teacher is giving him the answers. Mom thinks that this is a good thing, but this is what they do around here to get rid of students that they cant stand to put up with for whatever reason.
Mom doesnt see my medicine as something that I have to have. If she went without her heart medication for three days, she would be in a mess but no one else's problems matters unless its the prince or her husband. Allen's job isnt looking like it will last long enough for us to look for another place to move. We are hoping that if they make it through the first of next month, that it will last for awhile longer. They are having trouble at work getting their quality up, his quality is fine but they are working them seven days a week and its wearing the employees out. Quality doesnt stay that high when you work your people to death.
If we get through the first of June, which I am really hoping so because that is our anniversary. If he has to draw unemployment, we will still be fine but the house hunting will be stopped for sometime. I might also have to stop going to the doctor. I am just not ready to come off the medicine just yet. I was wanting to do it at the end of the year. My doctor might work with me if I talk to him about this situation. I highly doubt it because they dont write refills around here,
Other than that, things are fine. Its just a few things here and there that worries me. The main problems are under control right now. We just have to make it until payday. It seems like we get really tight a few days before payday. I worry myself to death because I am just that type of person. Dad said that he was going to send us a little bit of money because he couldnt find a AC cheap around where he lived. I told him that was fine. Oh yeah, our big AC went on the fritz and I had to call and beg Mom for one of her small ones.
She acted like I was just asking for blood when i called and asked her for that. When you live in a tin can that isnt well insulated, even 80 degree temperatures feels like 110. Believe me, it gets awful hot over here some days. But in this room, it is a cool 65. We are ok, just having a few little problems. It will clear up hopefully. It will all work out in the end.