Well, I'm not proud...and here's why...

So something happened to day and I'm not proud.

I hit one of my neighbours dogs.

Before PETA comes down on my ass like a bag of hammers and the rest of you animal lovers start howling for my blood, let me explain. My puppy, Thora, was in the dog run at our condo with Oreo, our neighbours Border Collie, and she took a poop. Yes, I know, all well and good, because dogs do that sort of thing. Well, this time, there was blood in her poop, and not only blood in her poop, but also blood on her fur around her bum.

Naturally I went to panic stations, as I LOVE my dog, and with blood in her poop, it's always a concern.

Well, I call Thora over and try to get her to lie down, so I can take a look and try to determine what's wrong, and my neighbour's border collie comes running over, and almost knocks me over while I'm trying to look at Thora's butt. My neighbour starts calling out "Oreo! Oreo!" and starts trying to wave her dog over. In the mean time, I'm trying to keep my puppy quiet so that I can take a look at what's going on down there, and Oreo keep charging in to look. I started waving my hand, not looking, to try to keep him away. Of course, this means that he thinks I'm trying to play with him and keeps trying to nose at Thora while she's on her back, legs spread, tail pulled back, and I do NOT want him there. My neighbour, in the mean time, continues to simply call her dog instead of stepping in to grab Oreo. I don't know if she could have, I know that she's been having problems with her back, but there it is.

Well, I made contact. A good solid open handed smack on the butt, and he skitters away. I didn't hit him that hard. No yelp, no grunt, no nothing, but it was enough to keep him away while I tried to look, and determined that, yes, indeed, that was blood on Thora's butt and it seemed to be seeping a little from her sphincter.

In the mean time, my neighbour is aghast because I swatted her dog away and made contact, and she starts cursing at me to never to hit her dog. I apologised profusely, explaining that I was really concerned about my dog and I was trying to keep him away. In the mean time, she still just stands there, calling her dog, instead of trying to get in there and grab him. I continued to apologise for hitting Oreo, but apparently, she wasn't going to hear it, and as a parting shot told me she would never hit my dog.

I feel really shitty about it because I like Oreo and my neighbour, and I would NEVER hurt another animal on purpose. I don't know if my actions are justifiable, but I do feel bad about it. I was trying to keep Oreo away from Thora so that I could ascertain what was wrong with her, and he was being a pain in the butt, but I hope that my neighbour can find it in her heart to forgive me, beacuse I don't want Thora to lose a playmate in Oreo, and I don't want to lose a friend in my neighbour.

Thanks for listening people.

UPDATE!
Found what was causing the bleeding. It was, as my vet puts it, a "dietary indiscretion". Apparently, Thora got into something she shouldn't have, namely some wood chips. Her second poop of the evening was still slightly bloody, but in the last piece expelled, I could find some semi-hard, squarish, woody-like pieces, which was probably a part of the table at my parent's place that she was gnawing on.

Whew!

Again, to my neighbour, I'm sorry!