One word... Barbwire...

I was raised by it and knew how much I hated it then as we had our share of animals & kids try to play in it (all of which lost and will forever lose to). 2 weeks ago yesterday I had taken the dogs out for a much needed walk. The path that we were adventuring on had a ditch on one side and a huge field on the other side. Degen's nose had caught some bird scents in the field and so he dove under the fence to investigate, but as soon as I whistled he'd come right back... UNDER THE FENCE. While we hit a part of path that came near the road, so I was focusing on Mitchel and Sophie who were headed to the road, out of the corner of my eye I saw Degen dart into the field again... UNDER THE FENCE, so I whistled, but was headed to Mitchel and Sophie to be sure they were safe a didn't go near the road. BUT this time as Degen came back he decided to jump the fence.... He has a VERY high vertical, and I really think that he didn't see the top wire... and in mid-jump his hind legs caught the top wire and tangled he became. It was so crazy and so scary. The fence was about 5 feet high and he was hanging above ground about 3 feet and fighting for his life. If you have never met Degen he is HUGE, super long legs and around 70 lbs. The biggest blessing of it all was as soon as I got to him he instantly stopped fighting, making it so I could pick him up and untangle him and rip him off the fence. He had a couple cuts on his body, but his ear was the worst. A lesson I learned, a dogs ear is like a humans head when it comes to bleeding.... A LOT. Mitchel had 2 shirts on so I stripped one off and used that as a temp band aid to stop the bleeding. But I couldn't hold it while we had to walk back to the car, 10 min fast walk, so I'd have to let it bleed for a while, then stop and put pressure on it when it got too bad. It was seriously like someone turned a faucet on, then he'd shake his head and well by the time I got a hold of a friend to come and rescue us so I could sit in the back and hold his ear, I was COVERED head to toe in blood. You should of seen the looks of the ladies at the front desk of the Vet office... pretty gross. But after a sedation, 20 stitches, morphine, pain killer, 2 weeks of healing I am happy to say he is all healed and happy :) Saddest part of all is that Mitchel was with me the whole time and when the Vet when to take Degen to fix him all he could say was "That's my Degen! You can't hurt my Degen, he's my friend, don't hurt my DOG!" We had to have lots of reassuring talks about pet doctors and that they were helping him. We are all good now and Mitchel's very happy to have his buddy back and exploring again :) I can tell you though we won't be going by barbwire again!