Help Mila wag her tail again

We, pet owners are too familiar with the sound of a thumping tail against the furniture. Our pet’s presence is truly one of the best gifts a human can have. A wagging tail is the symbol of a happy pet.

But since October 29th, 2020, the wag of Mila's tail has been missing in our house. After the most traumatic dog attack happened, Mila had to spend 4 days at the ICU of the Emergency Veterinary Clinic on Yonge St. in Toronto.

We were devastated emotionally, mentally, we missed her so much!!  All we wanted to do was to be with her, but we couldn't. Covid 19 made it impossible for us to be with our loved baby after the most traumatic experience. On top of that, add the stress of more than $6,000 in vet bills.



Here's what happened: 
 
On Thursday, October 29th 2020 at around noon, my dog Mila and I went for a short walk by our residential building in Balliol St – Toronto ON. As per the usual, we went to the back of our building, there’s a park there where we go almost every day, twice a day, to meet other dogs and neighbours. I must state that this park is NOT an off-leash area, we are reminded, at least by our building’s administration to have dogs on a leash.

We were just starting the stairs to the grass area of the park when I notice two grey dogs that resembled Pitbulls, one is off leash playing fetch and the other one is on a leash by his owner, right in the middle of the park – about 25-30 feet away from us. While Mila is peeing right in front of the stairs and on a leash, the off leashed dog (Dog 1) comes running towards my dog and snaps at her several times until I managed to make him leave. At the same time, the other dog (Dog 2) still on a leash (a green leash I believe), starts barking towards us. The owner just calls Dog 1 and says to him: “What are you doing?”. He didn’t even put the dog on a leash or apologises or anything. At that point I don’t even go further into the park, Mila and I start leaving the park.
 
Once I’m out of sight from the dogs, I stop on the side of my building to check on my dog, I just wanted to make sure she didn’t have any bites (Mila has a lot of hair). I spent around 20 – 30 seconds checking on my dog. We keep walking, now at the corner of our building (very far and out of sight from the dogs), all of the sudden I hear a dog barking like crazy, and as I turn, I see Dog 2 running at full speed towards us. I get scared and pick up my 40lbs dog to try to protect her and thinking the Dog 2 would just stop at my feet. But Dog 2 jumps and bites my dog on her tail and takes her off my arms and to the ground. I start screaming for help and all of the sudden Dog 1 is also there trying to bite my dog. I manage to scare Dog 1, but Dog 2 keeps biting Mila hard on her hind area. I try to separate Dog 2 from Mila but all it does is shake his head with Mila’s butt in his mouth (Mila couldn’t even fight back because she couldn’t reach the dog). I grab Dog’s 2 collar to make him stop but he’s not stopping, I start hitting him to defend my dog, but he wasn’t stopping, I’m on my knees trying to make the dog let go of Mila, but he wouldn’t let go. I start seeing my dog’s blood.

I kept screaming to their owner: “Do something, please, do something, call your dog”, at that point he wasn’t doing a thing, and all he said was that he couldn’t do anything and he kept showing me his hand (with his cigarette still in his mouth).
 
A lot of neighbours came down to help us, trying to separate Dog 2 from Mila, someone even called the police. Mila was dragged everywhere by this dog; he wasn’t letting her go. Dog 1 was STILL off leash. Then, a neighbour sprayed the dogs with pepper spray and because I was still on the floor trying to save my dog, I got some spray on my face too. A lady grabs me and tries to calm me down, but Mila was still being bitten so I kept screaming, until I see that a neighbour has Mila, she was finally let go.

I move to my dog but at this point I was so scared, worried and in shock that I couldn’t even feel the pepper spray, or my knees and hands being hurt; all I could see was blood and my dog being in pain. I can’t describe what I was feeling at that point; I remember being focused on getting my dog to the vet right away. The police were at the scene by then, questioning the other owner and I see him laughing.
 
I didn’t have my phone or ID on me, I didn’t even have my car that day, shaking I asked to borrow a cell to call my husband. I call him. One of the staff members of our building offers to give us a ride to the clinic. The police kept asking me what happened, but I was crying, and I couldn’t even talk, all I wanted to do was to take my dog to the vet. As I’m there holding my dog, I start feeling the pepper spray on my face, and I notice that my knees and hands are hurt, I had bruises and small scratches.
 
Another member of the building’s staff, offers the police to give them my contact info, I say yes. As I was waiting for the ride, I see my mother in law holding my 2-year-old son in her arms, my husband called her right after to come check on us. I was so scared, I couldn’t understand what had happened.

All I can remember from the police was one of the officers had tried to ask me what happened, but I was in shock, I couldn’t speak. I saw the police questioning the witnesses, they were telling him about the incident, one of them even had a video.

As I hop on the car with Mila, one of the officers tries to calm me down and offer his help with the case, I say thank you. Right after, still on the car, Chris – one of the witnesses that caught everything from the moment Dog 2 came running towards us, hands out his number. 

In our way to the VEC on Yonge St. I feel the pepper spray more than ever, I kept hugging my dog, I was still in shock. I get off at the VEC and handoff Mila to the vets. I had to explain everything over the phone. I couldn’t even be with my dog.

Mentally I am torn, in the past 5 days I’ve experienced not only my best friend being hurt, but also flashes of the incident and not being able to sleep. Sadly, I don’t trust dogs anymore – and it feels wrong because I’ve had dogs all my life, I am always around other dogs in my building, every day. I’m scared and I get anxious every time I get to step on the sidewalk. I scan the area before stepping out of my car. This was such a traumatic experience, I am scared. 

We are not only broken financially with vet bills, but we are also defeated mentally. This person had zero initiative of apologizing, checking in on us or even offering to help, who does that??

The vets report:



We know there's a lot of pressing issues going on in the world at the moment, but  we will appreciate your generosity from the bottom of our hearts. 


The vet bill:
For transparency, I'm attaching a screenshot of our vet bill.


I'm still trying to get the final invoice with the amount after taxes. Covid makes everything a bit harder since the VEC safety measures are very strict, everything has to be managed by phone. 

Sensitive Images  of Mila's injuries below:
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Thank you so much for love and support. We will always be in debt to you for helping us during these difficult times.