a warning.

Yesterday was full of excitement. My brother came home from Maine for his summer visit, we had a family barbecue, and a pretty bad dog bite. Our family sweetheart, Kit pictured above, wanted so badly to give the family dog a biscuit when he returned home from his walk. Apparently, my sister had just run in the house and my dad didn't know that Kit was outside when he came back into the yard returning from the walk. Kit armed with a biscuit tried to give it to the dog and when he took it in his mouth, then dropped it (as he always does), Kit picked it up again and attempted to feed it to him. The large Husky-Chow mix snapped at her face and got her really badly. She was rushed to the emergency room and came home with multiple stitches above and below her lips.

It truly breaks my heart that this little sweetheart had to go through this. Nobody wants to see a little one in pain or possibly permanently scarred. She couldn't eat last night because of the pain and swelling, but she wanted to, which was even more frustrating. I am riddled with frustration and guilt for having not been there when all of this happened. I can only imagine how my sister and dad feel about the incident.

Please let this be a warning to all of you with dogs and children. This could have been prevented by not letting a small child at eye level feed the dog. Children are often the victims of dog bites and apparently, more often than not, the family dog is the biter. I did a little research when I came home last night and found a website, Dogsbite.org which has statistics and information on dangerous breeds of animals and other interesting dog bite stories and prevention tips.

Be safe.