Came home from school yesterday on a normal, crazy Thursday. Walked the dog. Picked up Chris from school. Left early for a PTA board meeting so I could get some dinner and type up the minutes from the last meeting. Nothing like putting things off until the last minute.


While pulling out of the drive-through, my phone rang. It was John. He was practically hysterical. "MOM! You gotta come home! MOM! It's...Larry...window...blood..." It didn't get much better, but the gist was that Larry (the dog) had busted through the front window and chased down someone on the street and he had blood on him.


It wasn't as bad as all that. Luckily, I wasn't too far from home and got home pretty quickly. Yes, Larry had busted through the front window--but it was open so he didn't actually break the window. He knocked the screen out. (Interestingly enough, the screen wasn't damaged at all. Odd.)


From what I can gather, a woman was walking her two dogs across the street. Larry jumped through the window to go "meet" them. A dog-fight ensued. From my point of view of having this dog for a month and taking him for walks almost daily--he LOVES other dogs. He wants to play and play and play with them. He wants to meet every other dog we see while walking. He's adamant about it. But he's never, ever been aggressive to another dog. On the other hand, if you're walking your dogs and you see a 50 pound bulldog racing toward you, it would be scary. I understand that. And...one of the dogs has only three legs. So if I were that dog, I'd be defensive immediately. I really don't know what happened, I just know my dog thus far in our ownership of him.


The lady freaked out. Apparently she tried to break up the fight and got bit on the hand and scratched on the ankle. When I got home, the boys had Larry back in the house--thank the Lord that Chris was home!--and had calmed down a bit. I checked on them, got Larry crated so there wouldn't be a repeat episode. The woman's dogs were gone and she was hysterical. Her husband was there by now. I apologized to him. He asked about Larry's shots. He was very calm. She was not, but she was off the phone. I told her that my boys said she got bit. She showed me her hand. I offered a rag and she said, "Yes, please." I ran back to the house to get the rag.


As I stepped out the front door--rag in hand--an ambulance and fire truck pulled up. Seriously?!? Okay. The EMTs were checking out her hand, so I went to talk to the lady across the street. She said the dog owner had been screaming, "Call 911! Call 911!" So she did. Understandable. Then came the police car and animal control. I went to check on the boys. The dog owner went to the hospital in the ambulance. Yes. In the ambulance.


Now I had seen her hand. When I saw it, it didn't look like it was bleeding anymore. It is a hand injury and I certainly want her to have it checked out. But the ambulance ride? Really?


The animal control lady was very nice. Larry has to be quarantined at animal control for 10 days for a $100 fee. I can live with that. He burst out of the house unrestrained and apparently bit someone. That's the law. But I'm worried. Not about Larry, but about what happens next. What kind of potential civil legal trouble could we be in? Will she go after us for all the medical bills? Pain and suffering? Did she find her dogs? (She must have because the animal control woman knew the three-legged dog had a couple of puncture wounds.)


One more ironic aspect to this story. I know the woman. She's a member of our ward. She was one of my visiting teachers when we first moved here. She's a teacher here in town. Now what?