Depressing couple of days.....

It has truly been a depressing couple of days for me, not to mention stressful. It seems that are two boys aren't getting along any more. I can't understand it, they've always been best buddies but I came home on Thursday to see Rudy's face and foot swolllen with multiple puncture wounds, nothing life threatening but horrendous to me all the same. I took him to the vet who confirmed that they were in fact dog bites. I couldn't imagine Cody attacking Rudy, I can't even picture it in my mind being plausible. I wanted to think that another dog had gotten in our yard seeing as Cody didn't have a scratch on him, but it seems they don't like each other anymore and reality is setting in that it really did happen.

I'm embarrassed that this could happen in my house (as a dog trainer). But there was no cause that I can tell unless it was over a ball or someone has been taunting them in the alley and Cody redirected it at Rudy. I've spent hours trying to make sense of it. Cody is strong-headed but very submissive with us so it's hard to imagine it being a dominance issue as Rudy is very submissive. They've always been best buddies so this is really sudden as they're both about 5 and a half years old. Now when one walks by the other, there's this brief exchange between the two of them where they both look at each other and their heads go down and then they dodge each other....not an agressive action but there's some weird communication going on that I can not understand. And they don't want to be around each other anymore. So how do you make two dogs love each other again? Yet when we go for a walk, they act like buddies again. So strange. If you gave me two dogs who were fighting each other and the owner was a timid person who couldn't take control of the situation, I could tell you immediately what was the cause of everything....but our dogs know they're not #1 in our household so I'm confused as to why they fought.

I'd like to believe it was a one-time thing but there have been multiple times that Rudy has come to the door (when I'm home for my lunch break) with small cuts on his face. We thought he was cutting himself on the chain link fence because he goes crazy when people drive by in the alley. We even cornered off one section that we thought might be it but that didn't seem to stop it. But it never looked like a puncture would, always a scratch.

Until I can understand how and why it happened, I have to keep them seperated when I'm gone (they're fine when we're home). It just breaks my heart. So as soon as the snow melts enough, we'll be putting up a crappy fence to split the yard up.

We decided in the meantime that it was too much stress to continue fostering Bella so we put an ad in the paper for her. The next day, I had my phone ringing off the hook....seems chihuahuas are in high demand! I was very particular about the home and we found a great one for her. I'm sad to see her go but I know that it was better for everybody at this point. I don't know if she contributed to the fight but I didn't want to risk it happening again. Miss ya Bella Boo. :(

I'm just not going to feel content about anything until I can have my boys be buddy-buddy again. My heart is broken. I told my dad it's like having 2 children and finding out that one has been secretly trying to kill the other.....I never in my life saw this coming.