Speaking of instinct, just over four years ago, Saachi attacked Affie and ripped her lower mandible off her face. Yes, you read that correctly.

 

Saachi was always food-anxious and one morning, as I prepared their meal she just snapped. The way Affie’s injuries turned out we figure she had jumped up to say good morning and Saachi just switched.

Saachi swung the poor girl from side to side and it took both me and my aunt to pull them apart. We rushed Affie to emergency where she stabilized. The hospital kept her mouth closed in a makeshift sling so her jaw wouldn’t just hang then two days later she went through severe dental surgery.

 

The dental specialist told us this was the most complex surgery he had done. Her entire lower jaw had separated from the rest of her skull. The right break was clean while the left side completely shattered. Thankfully, the muscles remained intact so it was just a matter of her bone healing properly. Unfortunately, there was a 50/50 chance Affie would be paralyzed on her left side.

The surgeon clamped her jaw shut with a wire on both sides and said we just had to hope the bone would heal properly.

We spent 5 months taking Affie out on leash, keeping her from jumping, running, going up/down the stairs (she also broke her leg), weathering the cold, her tantrums, and vomiting her meds on purpose but the time finally came to see how well her face healed.

 

She went into a second surgery to remove her rotted teeth (we couldn’t brush them while she was healing) and wires and we found out that everything healed perfectly well. She was 100% healed, no paralysis!

 

But, back to Saachi really quickly. I never felt anger towards her. After all, she was a dog who acted on instinct. She felt threatened and she attacked. It ended in more injuries just because of their size difference. After all, Saachi was 10 times bigger than Affie. And what was really amazing was how forgiving Affie was! They did drift apart slightly after the attack but Affie forgave Saachi ten days after her surgery, she went up to her wagged her tail and licked her nose. I may not go on instinct like a dog but I don’t know if I’d be that forgiving towards the person who tried to kill me!

We were extremely lucky Affie was too stubborn to die and now four years later it is like nothing ever happened!

 

Hi, my name is Monica and I have RA.