The thing that I feared the most with Chutney happened. The thing that helped me conclude that Chutney needs to be an only dog and needs to be re-homed happened.

Chutney attacked Relish and left her for dead.

It happened two Tuesdays ago, April 25th.

It was the first day that Chutney had his cone off after being neutered. Before, he never gave any inkling that he would open the door. Everything was the same in terms of routine. I put Pickles and Relish in the bedroom and Chutney was king of the living room. I left for work, to DTLA for the MS Teams conference.

I don’t know exactly the time that it happened, but I came home to the mess. I knew something was wrong when I opened the front door and saw that the living room door to the bedroom area was open. I saw Pickles looking at me like he would when I come home.

Then the smell hit me, then the black fur. I didn’t really comprehend what was happening, but then I put my bag down on the crate like I normally would and saw Relish lying there, calm, sleeping, not moving.

Chutney was there, excited that I’m home, excited to show me what he’s done.

I carefully carried Relish out of the crate and put her in her own crate. I needed to take her to the Emergency hospital. I crated Chutney and took Pickles out for a pee and I was gone. I was at home for no longer than 5-10 minutes.

I took her to ASEC, the same place that I took her last year when she had that weird asthma attack. She’s still there.

The damage was extensive. Chutney tore into her hind legs and possible soft regions. Relish was in shock when I brought her in and the first night was just trying to get her out of shock and stabilize her. Once she was in the clear, the doctors cleaned out the wound and went into surgery to investigate and repair.

Chutney tore the muscles from her bones. They had to cut out the dead flesh since there was no blood running into it and sew her up.

Thankfully the major veins, nerves, and arteries were still intact. There were no broken bones. The shock and the look of the whole thing was worse than what was expected.

Since she’s still in the hospital, scheduled to be released today, her recovery is slow and still requires a lot of care.

Her blood proteins were stabilizing nor her blood pressure, but after a week or so, things started to get back to normal levels.

Since then, it was just fucking stressful for me.

I knew everything that happened was because me. I made the decision to rescue Chutney. I brought him into our good and peaceful home. Albeit it was on good intentions, but I knew there were possibilities that things weren’t going to work out. I had forewarning, but I tried.

I was the one that didn’t lock Chutney up in his crate when I was gone, even though I know that Relish would be safer. I just assumed that he wouldn’t be able to open the doors, even though Pickles didn’t have a problem. It was my fault.

I did a good thing in saving Chutney and the Universe had other plans to fuck with me…and so It did. I paid dearly for it and still am paying for it. Not only for the emotional pain and stress that I was/am going through, but financially. Thank goodness, I had a good amount in savings to cover the expense, but otherwise, I would probably have had to make that decision or be in debt.

I’m not happy about it, but again, my responsibility, and it’s my debt to pay. I own it. My fault, but I’m still blaming the Universe. Shit happens.

So, while Relish was in recovery, I had to find a home for Chutney. I drafted out a flier and reached out to people that could help and they shared and forwarded the information and hopefully I could get interested parties in adopting Chutney.

I reached out to all the partners for NKLA asking if they could help re-home Chutney and a few reached out looking for information and helping me do courtesy posts.

One rescue helped and said that I should go to their adoption event last weekend at the VegFest 2017. It’s a vegan festival and I did. Chutney and I was there and we did have a few interested parties, but most of those who are interested didn’t have a place for him or already had other dogs or even cats.

Chutney had to be an only pet. I couldn’t consciously say that he gets a long great with other pets and animals. I can’t consciously do that at all.

I told them the story of how I rescued him and tried to integrate him, etc. etc. etc. and many were moved and thanked me for rescuing Chutney, but WE came home together.

Thankfully Carel was interested in taking him but in a sense, he had to clear it with his landlord and neighbor first. Carel came out to the adoption event and met Chutney and they seemed to get along well.

One thing about Chutney that I love is that he’s pretty chill with people. He’s loving to people, affectionate. He just wants to be able to be loyal to someone.

So, after that event, Carel decided that he did want to adopt him and so we came up with a plan and he would pick Chutney up since I was anticipating getting Relish back mid-week.

Unfortunately, even though Ms. Relish’s spirit was back and great, her wound can’t fight an infection. That’s why her stay in the hospital is so long, this infection.

Carel picked Chutney up Tuesday night after his date and the Agency meeting.

Maybe I was drunk, ’cause I planned on getting shitfaced at the event from the stress that I was going through, but after I got home and Carel was on his way and me packing up Chutney’s things, I broke down.

I was emotional about a fucking dog that I’ve only had for 2 weeks and that only killed my fucking cat. I fucking cried, sobbed, that Chutney was going to go. I held him, hugged him, and cried on him and I’m not sure what the hell was happening.

I’m sure that emotional outbreak wasn’t all just about Chutney, but about EVERYTHING that I was going through. It was some sort of release and relief from the heavy burden and stress that I was going through.

I found him a good home and I didn’t have to make the decision to dump him at a shelter, ’cause I would have done that. When push came to shove, if I couldn’t find a home for Chutney, I would have dropped him off at the WLA Animal Shelter.

I went there to ask what would happen if I dropped him off and he wouldn’t get adopted and they told me that he’ll still be there. They have a high adoption rate vs kill rate and the main reason why they would put a dog down is because of their health and not behavior or anything else. That made me feel a lot better and comfortable enough for me to drop him off.

Again, Chutney is a great dog. He’s very sweet and affectionate. He just needs to be an only dog and I will definitely make those notes during drop-off.

Even though one part of this stress is over, my worries turned to Relish. Again, she’s recovering miraculously, but her infection won’t go away. The surgeons went back to clean up the wound and put her on antibiotics.

On Thursday, I was expecting the call that I don’t want, the call to tell me that the infection wasn’t going away and they’ve exhausted everything that they can do to help her and that I would have to make the decision to put her down.

I did get a call, but it wasn’t that. Yes, her infection wasn’t going away, but she’s recovering great. The doctors decided that they would try to send her home for recovery instead.

They put a medicine and feeding tube in her so I can easily feed her the medication without having to fight with her. They also believe that it might be a better healing place because there wouldn’t be as much bacteria that might be causing the infection because it isn’t a hospital.

That’s the hope and plan and TODAY, I will pick her up.

Here’s to a good and quick recovery at home. The next phase of getting back to normal starts today.