Ding! Ding! Round TWO: Hunter & Chase Square Off

Apparently they went at it again. I say apparently because no one was home; we were both at work but when we got back and sat down to eat some brownies & ice cream, after I got the lights turned on I glanced down and saw SKIN on Hunter’s forearm. You’re not supposed to see Labrador skin, so I knew something was up.

Payback’s a bitch, ain’t that right Hunter? You chewed up Chase’s arm, and now he’s returned the favor.

I’m kind of pissed and saddened and confused all at the same time. They're good dogs they really are, and it’s not like they’re walking around the house snarling and growling and biting. It happens are rare occasions – two rare occasions inside of two weeks here now – that they get up in arms over some particular thing. They’re brothers, they’re dogs, it happens, right?

But the problem is that we’re talking about 90lb dogs that are built like tanks, and rather equally matched. Since no one was home to break it up this time, Hunter got more good lashes upon him than Chase had before. Here’s some of the carnage:

That’s just the front side, there’s two more on the back side as well, though they are pretty tame in comparison. We're not making any Vet appointments yet. Chase seemed to heal rather well from his wounds with just our care, and though Hunter's are bigger, it's mostly "bigger" as in "longer." which may in fact prove to make them easier to keep clean. We'll see, but the Vet's # is in the address book on my computer for a reason: we'll make that call if it looks like he's getting a bit infected.

The larger problem is, what if this continues? The way I look at it, they're brothers and brothers get into tiffs over things sometimes. They're not overtly aggressive or anything as I said earlier, but I don't want them to hurt each other. I don't want to even have to consider separating the two, and having to decide which one to keep. I don't want to, they love & need each other. You should see how they act when you take one and leave the other, it's pitiful, it really is.

Right now they're laying together, licking each other's ears. These are not dogs that hate one another. But when their play escalates and someone takes it personal, the above happens. I'm hoping now that each of them has felt the aftereffects of that, perhaps they'll rather back down and use their words as opposed to their teeth. Because I love the little f*ckers dearly and want to have one standing on each side of me. I'm selfish like that.

EDIT TO ADD: around lunch time, found some matted bloody hair on Chase's neck. Turns out, Hunter got a tooth into him this time, too. It's cleaned up and antibiotic'd now, but dammit, now we have to keep on eye on two dogs. Well, actually four. Miles is still Cancer-stricken though I'm starting to wonder (more on that later), Zoey has a rash on her leg, Hunter has lacerations to his right front forearm and Chase – recovering from punctures to his arm – is now also nursing a puncture on his neck.

Quick, someone call Animal Control, holy f*ck.