Dog attack averted by handgun

Sort of.

Here's the news piece, we'll share our thoughts afterwards.

A 15-year-old girl and her 5-year-old brother were walking their small Japanese Chin about 7:30 p.m. when the dog was attacked and killed. Now, the Nebraska Humane Society is trying to locate the owner of the pit bulls that killed it.

The kids were in the 3400 block of North 42nd Street when two pit bulls running loose in the neighborhood attacked their dog, said Mark Langan, the Humane Society's vice-president for field operations.

The pit bulls dragged the Chin into a nearby garage.

The girls' father came out of their house with a handgun and fired at least one shot into the air. The pit bulls ran off and later were located by the Humane Society. The dogs had no identifying tags or microchips.

When the Official Beagles of The Shack get walked, one of the walkers is a Man With A Gun.

The lead is wrapped around his off-side hand, since a 30 pound mass of wriggling pooch on your gun hand adds a degree of difficulty to the draw stroke.

Now, long-time Freedom Fiends know that I am no fan whatsoever of shots fired in the air. What goes up, must come down somewhere. If I had my druthers, any bullet I fire will end up in a matter of my choosing (in this case, attacking dog.)

Personal friends also know that having to shoot a dog would crush me (possibly more than a human). But to protect my girls, I'll deal with the aftermath.

Example: Mizz Merchant, the girls and I were out for a walk a couple of days ago. The Mizz points to a big bush and says, "Aww, there's a loose dog that just ran back there. A big black one."

Now, typically, I try to get the good dog owner karma by corralling loose dogs and calling the owners. There is one big black lab in our AO, however, whose owner has no concept of tags or fencing. The pooch is friendly, and odds are it is her.

That said, all I know is "big, black dog on the loose" and we have two dogs out in the open. So I try to get between the dog and my brood.

Turned out that it was our friendly neighborhood loose lab, but in the event it was a more violent animal, I would not have been firing into the air.

Local Freedom Fiends know one of us who has had to shoot a dog in defense of kids. I know the person was saddened by the act, but was faced with no choice. It was a good shoot, by a prepared person who had thought through the actions before heading down the trail. In other words, this person did everything right.

Stay safe.