06/12/2024
From Dave Allen in Arizona with Sampson de la source d’Hannahatchee m.
“Come, come, COME!” I yelled just before I saw Sampson fly through the air.
Sampson and I were out for a walk in a city park less than two miles from my home in southern Arizona. It’s a nearly 7-mile long, unimproved park with walking paths. Many people walk their dogs off-leash here, as I was doing. Sampson was about 50 feet away from me and moved up to a small piece of cover. As he did, two large male javelina stood up with about half a dozen females and young behind them. I started to call Sampson. One of the males bluff-charged him and stopped. For a brief second, I thought we were out of danger. As Sampson turned to come back to me, the javelina saw its opportunity and charged Sampson for real, hitting him in the hind quarter, and launching him through the air. As Sampson hit the ground, and before he could regain his feet, the javelina was on him, driving his tusks deep into Sampson’s buttocks and pelvic area, grinding him into the dirt. By the grace of God, I was wearing snake boots, as I often do. I rushed in and started stomping and kicking the javelina. I then saw the second big male rush in to attack me, driving his tusks into my boot. I think he was trying to knock me to the ground. But the first javelina finally let go of Sampson and my dog got away. The javelina ran off and I called Sampson to me. He seemed a little shook up, but not as bad as I would have expected. I looked him over to assess the damage and knew I needed to get him help. He had a large puncture on the upper part of his pelvis and a much larger puncture and tear on his upper ham. But I was relieved to see the tusks appeared to have missed his spine and kidneys. No major blood vessels or tendons appeared to be cut. But I needed to get him home and examine him and determine the next steps. So I called my wife to pick me up. I was relieved to see that Sampson didn’t limp as we headed to the road to meet her. I stripped off my t-shirt and wrapped it around his wounds. Once home, I carried him through the house to the back porch dripping a line of blood from the front to the back door. Of course this was early on a weekend morning and my vet wouldn’t yet be open. Fortunately I’ve had some emergency medical training and plenty of suturing experience, after 30 years of hunting remote areas with dogs. My brother-in-law and his friend Jeff, a retired police officer, happened to be visiting and helped me lay him on clean towels on the back patio where we had good light. They held Sampson while I cleaned and irrigated the wounds and assessed the damage. I looked up from my work to see Jeff praying for my dog. Gotta love men like that. I now had a better feeling for the extent of the damage and what to do next. I carry an extensive medical kit along with a full surgical kit. It took 14 surgical staples for me to close the wounds, leaving a small opening at the bottom of the larger one, as I knew it would need to drain. I looked at my watch and saw that it would still be another hour before the vet would open, but as I later discovered, my vet would not even be in that day. So the closest available vet would be almost a two hour drive away, an eternity during a medical emergency.
At this time, I'm happy to say that Sampson has made a full recovery with no complications.
The reason I am telling this story is threefold. First is that Jackie said it needed to be told.
Second, I want to warn others to be careful of javelina. I’ve hunted for 30 years in southern Arizona and am often around javelina while running dogs. They have sometimes bluff charged my dogs, but this was the first attack. Had I known, I would have tried to respond more quickly, trying to pull the javelina’s attention away from the dog and toward myself.
The third reason I want to tell this story is to encourage other dog owners and hunters to get a level of emergency medical training so they will know what to do if, heaven forbid, something goes wrong with their dog or themselves. Some communities offer dog first aid training, which might be a good place to start. This story is not meant to be a how-to manual. Much more detail is needed and I’m not a licensed medical professional. I’m just glad I can put my dogs back together when needed. It has come in handy far more often than I would like, both for my dogs and for friends’ dogs
