My husky killed my mom's cat

[Ravenwolf]

Don't I feel like 6 different kinds of shit.

Long story short, my mom is watching our dogs for a week. My husband dropped them off earlier today. I spoke with my mom at about 8:30pm her time and she told me that Wyatt had gone after Sparky and bit him on the neck. Not hard, mind you, but just like he was playing. I told my mom that it wasn't play, and not to trust Wyatt near the cats. I stressed how important it was that she not even allow Wyatt to look at them, let alone approach them, because he sees them as food. It took me a solid year of consistent training to get to the point where he no longer looked at my cat as food, and he's been safe - 100% trustworthy - around my cat for 3 years. But gauging by his reaction when he sees cats on our walk, the lesson he learned was We Don't Eat This Kitty. All others still look tasty. But in all honesty, I genuinely figured that if he was snapped out of his focus but a few times, he would put the cats in the same category as my cat.

We'll never have the opportunity to find out, because it turns out my warning came too late. Judging by the rigor of the cat when my sister found him, Sparky was already dead when I had my conversation with mom.

I'm mad at my husband for not reminding my parents that Wyatt isn't to be trusted around cats.

I'm mad at myself for not calling ahead and reminding my parents, making sure to stress the importance of this and suggesting precautions to keep the cats safe.

I'm mad at my parents for not taking any precautions to keep the cats safe. Wyatt could have been kept outside, or gated in the front entrance when unattended (my parents have a permanent gate in place). The very first thing they should have done was put the gate across the stairs so the cats could at least escape. They probably assumed the timid Wyatt would never brave the metal spiral staircase, but they grossly underestimated the predatory drive of a husky. Wyatt chased Sparky down the stairs and cornered him in the laundry room. The poor cat died in a mess of blood.

So now I don't know what we're going to do. There are still 3 cats in the house (2 of which Wyatt has been with before - they just never came out while he was in the house) so understandably everyone is worried for their safety. My in-laws (where my husband is staying) won't want him there because they'll be afraid of the killer dog, especially if our little niece is going to be down. I told my sister that Wyatt should just stay outside unless there's someone with him and to put him out for the night on a longe line, since I don't trust that my parents' backyard is completely husky-proof. I guess we'll sort out the rest in the morning.

[mydiamond]

oh dear I don't know what to say... But I know what to do---I'll give you a hug

[sian_lea]

i wish i could say something useful to help all i can offer is sympathy and best wishes that things work out from here in the best possible way

[Storm Angel n Auroras Mum]

oh no Raven im sorry RIP Sparky.

cant offer any advice since I dont have cats but here have some more hugs :grouphug:xx

[Lucas]

:grouphug:sorry to hear about Sparky

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

aw hun im so sorry

R.I.P Sparky

[Sarah]

aww i'm so sorry hun

I'm very cautious of Koda around my cat as if he had the chance i believe he would so we're always so careful at home. I'd be cautious when you get him back with you and your cats - now he's had one he may very well try for another.

Is he crated?

[irene]

Don't I feel like 6 different kinds of shit.

Long story short, my mom is watching our dogs for a week. My husband dropped them off earlier today. I spoke with my mom at about 8:30pm her time and she told me that Wyatt had gone after Sparky and bit him on the neck. Not hard, mind you, but just like he was playing. I told my mom that it wasn't play, and not to trust Wyatt near the cats. I stressed how important it was that she not even allow Wyatt to look at them, let alone approach them, because he sees them as food. It took me a solid year of consistent training to get to the point where he no longer looked at my cat as food, and he's been safe - 100% trustworthy - around my cat for 3 years. But gauging by his reaction when he sees cats on our walk, the lesson he learned was We Don't Eat This Kitty. All others still look tasty. But in all honesty, I genuinely figured that if he was snapped out of his focus but a few times, he would put the cats in the same category as my cat.

We'll never have the opportunity to find out, because it turns out my warning came too late. Judging by the rigor of the cat when my sister found him, Sparky was already dead when I had my conversation with mom.

I'm mad at my husband for not reminding my parents that Wyatt isn't to be trusted around cats.

I'm mad at myself for not calling ahead and reminding my parents, making sure to stress the importance of this and suggesting precautions to keep the cats safe.

I'm mad at my parents for not taking any precautions to keep the cats safe. Wyatt could have been kept outside, or gated in the front entrance when unattended (my parents have a permanent gate in place). The very first thing they should have done was put the gate across the stairs so the cats could at least escape. They probably assumed the timid Wyatt would never brave the metal spiral staircase, but they grossly underestimated the predatory drive of a husky. Wyatt chased Sparky down the stairs and cornered him in the laundry room. The poor cat died in a mess of blood.

So now I don't know what we're going to do. There are still 3 cats in the house (2 of which Wyatt has been with before - they just never came out while he was in the house) so understandably everyone is worried for their safety. My in-laws (where my husband is staying) won't want him there because they'll be afraid of the killer dog, especially if our little niece is going to be down. I told my sister that Wyatt should just stay outside unless there's someone with him and to put him out for the night on a longe line, since I don't trust that my parents' backyard is completely husky-proof. I guess we'll sort out the rest in the morning.

oh dear what a mess ..so sorry about your parents cat ..hope you get it sorted ..

[lovemysiberian]

I'm so sorry about the whole situation, and for Sparky I can imagine how awful you feel and wish I could offer some sort of advice

[Ravenwolf]

Thanks for the kind words, all. I guess what else is there to say, eh? The worst has already happened.

I'm very cautious of Koda around my cat as if he had the chance i believe he would so we're always so careful at home. I'd be cautious when you get him back with you and your cats - now he's had one he may very well try for another.

Is he crated?

This was on my mind all night - the possibility that he might come back and start having a go at my cat again. I'm going to have to sit both my husband and our roommate down and tell them in no uncertain circumstances not to let Wyatt in the house unless they are directly supervising him, until such a point where he proves that he still doesn't see Bruenor as something to kill - something which I alone will decide. Wyatt learned the lesson so well that the cat will steal his food and all he'll do is complain until someone else chases the cat off, and Bruenor could actually shove Wyatt clean off his bed just by coming up and and saying "I think I'm going to sleep here now. You're kinda in the way."

Neither of my dogs are crated, but they live outside. So when no one's home they are outside, and they only come inside to visit - usually in the evening, or sometimes during the day when it's the weekend or our roommate is home. The dogs aren't permitted upstairs either - this was a failsafe to give the cat a safe place to escape to, and it was highly successful - even with no gate or door in the way Wyatt would still stop at the top step. Even after he proved that he wouldn't kill the cat we still kept the rule in play - it's rather nice having a living area free of hair! ...Well, husky hair, anyway.

And that's what makes this all the worse - he really is quite obedient and well-trained in the house - had my husband or I been prudent enough to stress what Wyatt's reaction might be to the cats they might have done something as a precaution.

[NicTurtle]

Hugs all around, I'm so sorry that happened to you all!

[murdoc]

i'm so sorry RIP Sparky!

[Ravenwolf]

I love how pragmatic my mom is. *whew!* Her attitude was surprisingly que sera sera. She's willing to keep the dogs, and when I spoke to her on the phone I was quite surprised by how casual her attitude was. My sister had put Wyatt outside alone, but he was crying non-stop so my mom locked the dogs in my dad's office - in the garage where it's cooler - for the night, and even turned the heat down for them. She intends to keep them out there at night, or outside together if her old doghouse is big enough for both of them (but she doesn't think it is).

Turns out mom thought she had secured the gate at the stairs (there was always one there to keep our little nephew from taking a header when he used to live there), but figures that what with people going up and down all the time it was probably left across but unsecured, and so wouldn't stop when he made contact. She knew that it just being across would deter Wyatt, but didn't think about how if it moved when he hit it in pursuit it would no longer be in the way... But since I had spoken with her and issued the warnings, she readily admitted that she didn't treat the situation as seriously as she should have (even if it was too late by that point).

ETA - my sister just confirmed that when she found Wyatt downstairs the gate was closed but not latched.

Mom wasn't thinking so much about the cats because she was more worried about how Wyatt might be with her little dog, Otis (who has been a chew toy for a few big dogs), but Otis has been treating them both like long lost buddies. I still warned her off of allowing them to stay together when there is no one around to supervise, just in case. My mom might not be crying over the death of one barn cat, but if anything happened to Otis we'd have issues. The only 3 times Wyatt has bitten another dog were one case where the dog attacked him first, another where he perceived the other dog was attacking Scout, and another which was my own fault - I had brought him to the offleash park on a retractable leash, but he couldn't run far enough to be with the other dogs and got so worked up and anxious that when he could reach another dog his response was an over-excited explosive bite. None of these incidents were even hard enough to draw blood, but they all still warrant vigilance. Scout is super-respectful of old Otis, so no one should get riled up enough to cause issue, but better safe than sorry.

[Storm Angel n Auroras Mum]

seems like you have one super forgiving mum there

[Ravenwolf]

seems like you have one super forgiving mum there

She's always been that way - rational to the point of almost being cold. I've seen her fight tooth and nail over an unfair mark on another kid's test, but look at my own work or my sister's and say "it's a fair mark, maybe next time you'll study harder." She's the kind of person you want in your corner in an emergency, because she can keep her shit together through anything. 4 years ago some punk threw a rock at the car her friend was driving. They were doing between 90 and 100kph and the fist-sized rock came through the windshield and smashed her friend in the face and knocked her out. They hit the ditch, and mom managed to take the wheel, avoid hitting anything, get her friend's foot off the gas pedal, get them back on the road and stopped using the e-brake. She just shrugged it off as "I just reacted. What else could you do?" She's incredible that way.

But it's also a downside - she was oblivious to warning signs and ignored advice about another one of her dogs until she ultimately had to put the dog to sleep for trying to kill her other dogs. There were so many points in time where it could have been avoided, but she refused to see them. I think/hope she views this as another instance where ignoring those warning signs or not taking them seriously enough has dire consequences. None of that alleviates the responsibility that I feel toward what happened, but at least, as I said, she's pragmatic enough to know that the fault isn't all mine. ETA: and also that kicking the dog out and making us find somewhere else to keep him for a week isn't going to change anything.

[Storm Angel n Auroras Mum]

She's always been that way - rational to the point of almost being cold. I've seen her fight tooth and nail over an unfair mark on another kid's test, but look at my own work or my sister's and say "it's a fair mark, maybe next time you'll study harder." She's the kind of person you want in your corner in an emergency, because she can keep her shit together through anything. 4 years ago some punk threw a rock at the car her friend was driving. They were doing between 90 and 100kph and the fist-sized rock came through the windshield and smashed her friend in the face and knocked her out. They hit the ditch, and mom managed to take the wheel, avoid hitting anything, get her friend's foot of the gas pedal, get them back on the road and stopped using the e-brake. She just shrugged it off as "I just reacted. What else could you do?" She's incredible that way.

But it's also a downside - she was oblivious to warning signs and ignored advice about another one of her dogs until she ultimately had to put the dog to sleep for trying to kill her other dogs. There were so many points in time where it could have been avoided, but she refused to see them. I think/hope she views this as another instance where ignoring those warning signs or not taking them seriously enough has dire consequences. None of that alleviates the responsibility that I feel toward what happened, but at least, as I said, she's pragmatic enough to know that the fault isn't all mine.

yeah my mum is very similar to that.

She feeds her dogs bakers! and wonders why the little terrier things are hypo!

[Ravenwolf]

The nightmare continues.

Since my arrival, we have been very careful about when Wyatt has been allowed in the house. The door to where the cats are gets closed, all the gates are up. We had no more issues.

Until christmas day, 9:45 pm. It's after supper, some people are cleaning the dishes while the rest of us are sitting at the table visiting with them. My husband and brother-in-law went outside to smoke. Rather than risk Wyatt slipping past them and getting outside (oh, which he did the night before, by the way, but miracle of miracles he came to me when I called him!) I brought him into the kitchen with us (on the other side of the gate). I made sure the gate to the basement was closed, but like an idiot I forgot about the living room door. There were 8 of us in the kitchen and he was just wandering around visiting.

Next thing we know a cat comes flying through the kitchen. Wyatt comes ambling after with a mouthful of cat hair. There was no blood or anything, so we assumed the cat was okay. My brother followed to make sure. The smell of anal gland in the air was enough to make you gag though.

My brother caught the cat and we had a look. There was minimal blood, but a hole the size of a nickel between her legs in the sensitive belly skin. Based on the injuries, I made this assessment of what happened:

Wyatt walked into the living room where one of the cats must have been sleeping on the chair. She had her hind end facing out and likely didn't move at all when Wyatt approached. He lunged with an experimental nip (as he's not experienced enough to go for a solid neck bite) and just caught the back of Meeko's leg, pulling out mostly a mouthful of hair, but catching just enough skin to tear the sensitive area. At this point the cat leapt off the chair, but Wyatt just caught her hind leg, tearing out 2 claws.

We had to drive 40 minutes to get to the 24-hour emergency clinic. We thought it would be a simple matter of a few stitches and done.

Nope! The fascia to the abdominal wall was pulled free and Meeko would have to be put under to correct it to prevent infection, then a drain would be installed to prevent fluid build up. The price tag - 1,100$.

Since my dog had already successfully killed one of her cats, I couldn't rightly refuse to save this one... It was her call, so she agreed to the surgery. She insisted on paying the 100$ for the elective pre-op bloodwork, but I told her I would cover the rest.

So now my husband, his family and my brother-in-law are pissed off that we spent that much on the cat. I'm choked at the price, but you can't just simply replace an individual, and my parents already lost one. It sucks, but we were able to cover it with little difficulty thanks to our emergency vet fund, though hopefully our own pets won't get sick and injured any time soon!

It was really hard to deal with Wyatt, both immediately after and after getting back from the vet. I honestly wanted nothing more than to kick the shit out of him. But on the other hand, I know that it's not his fault. The responsibility was ultimately with me to ensure the door was closed, and I should have risked stressing out one of the cats to correct and desensitize Wyatt to them immediately. Mostly I feel the guilt on myself, which is why I can't be upset at my mom for wanting to save her cat. Were the roles reversed, I would expect the same, whether from a family member or a total stranger. The responsibility rests with the attacker's owner, the decision rests with the victim's, end of story.

[Taiya Blue and Miko too]

oh crikes, i can't add anything but more :grouphug:

[sutsibe]

I would have felt the same!

[AutumnAlicia]

[Ravenwolf]

Just to update you all - we got home 2 days ago. The biggest fear was that Wyatt would see our cat differently and attempt to go after him now. Bruenor, being happy to see me, stayed close as soon as we got in the house, so I brought the dogs in. Wyatt never even gave him a cursory glance. Totally ignored him, as he's been trained to do. So I basically shoved the cat under his nose, and he proceeded to sniff Bruenor all over then look to me for attention. I've encouraged him to be around the cat on many different occasions over the last few days, but he doesn't treat him any different than before. We won't be trusting him alone any time soon, but it looks like at least my cat is still safe!

[AutumnAlicia]

that is great news!

[Austinville]

Ravenwolf

Ryn is the same. My (her) cat is ok, but the rest are snacks. Fortunately, for me, she's never gotten to any others, but not for a lack of trying.

*hugs* and thank goodness your mom is the woman she is. You're very fortunate in that!

[Leyka&Diva]

:grouphug:r.i.p sparky x

[Ravenwolf]

Ravenwolf

Ryn is the same. My (her) cat is ok, but the rest are snacks. Fortunately, for me, she's never gotten to any others, but not for a lack of trying.

*hugs* and thank goodness your mom is the woman she is. You're very fortunate in that!

You are right at that! She never once got upset about anything. My husband is mad that she allowed me to pay the entirety of the vet bill, but truthfully, if I told her I couldn't pay for the whole thing, she would have contributed as much as she needed to and not batted an eye. I guess it come from living on a farm and this kind of thing being a part of life - we've lost more than a few cats to foxes and coyotes over the years, and far too many dogs to traffic accidents. I'm still supremely pissed at myself for not making sure that damned door was closed, though. Talk about a painful lesson learned!!!

On an amusing note - it was pretty cold last night, -21c. When we got home we let the dogs in the house for a little bit, and they made a mad dash for their beds downstairs. Bruenor was lying on Wyatt's bed. Ordinarily Wyatt would just avoid it, but I guess he thought "to hell with this! I want my warm bed!" because he got on the bed and curled up right beside the cat. Bruenor gave him a disgusted look and left. Heh, I officially think he'll be safe.