Most of you by now already know me and about my pets. I can honestly tell you that this last week has been one of the worse weeks of my life. I'll start from the beginning.

We had a cat. A cat we loved very, very much but he had a habit of licking plastic. We never thought he'd try and eat some one day-he only ever licked it, and we didn't know he had - until it was too late... so last Monday the week started with Hefty dying. It hurt a lot and my husband keeps blaming himself but there was know way we could removed every piece of plastic from the house or known what was going to happen. That was bad enough. The next day I started feeling bad and what I thought was a cold turned out to be Swine flu. Wonderful. Sadly also the best part of the week comparatively. (Me and the baby are just fine btw) I had to be put in the hospital so our in-laws came and picked up our dogs for us. We always stay with my in-laws and the dogs are very, very use to being there and absolutely love it.

Now, my in-laws raise goats. I've seen just about every goat in that herd from the time it was born and never has a baby goat captured my heart the way this one little goat did. I called her Sandy. She had such personality and spark to her. She was very special and dear to me. I loved her very much. The dogs have been raised next to the goats. Shiva, one of the two huskies, and even though she is a husky she has been around them from the time she was a little fluff ball of a puppy and never once acted out towards them. She's never tried to hurt them or show interest in hurting them and she's seen almost as many of them grow up as I have. Not once. A week ago I would have bet my life she would never harm them. A bet I would have lost. Friday morning she went into the goat and mauled my Sandy to death.

I'm having a lot of trouble dealing with this. I'm deeply hurt, angry and confused. What would make a good dog, after years just snap? My husband thinks it may be because she saw my father-in-law skin a deer for the first time in her life a few weeks ago. He thinks the deer and the goat are enough a like for her to think it was okay. I don't know if this holds any ground or not. Why else after all of this time would she suddenly do this? No warnings, just a blood thirsty urge to kill that baby. Its not like it's the first kid she'd ever been around or seen. She's always been so sweet and gentle, even with the goats. She was taken to my sister-in-laws house and I have not seen her since the attack. I can't. I'm having too much trouble coping. I think of her and all my minds sees is blood. I can hear Sandy's screams of agony and terror as if I were there at the time. I don't really know if I can ever look at the dog the same again, trust her again or ever forgive her. Little Sandy didn't deserve that. Such a brutal, painful, slow death. How can I even begin to deal with this?

I don't even know where to begin - other than I am so sorry that so many terrible things have happened to you.

As far as the dog and the goat - something obviously triggered that type of reaction. Maybe it was the smell of blood from the deer. How is the dog now? Is she aggressive in any way? Have you asked a Vet for an opinion?

Is she prey driven (does she chase)? My one GSD is sweet and docile UNTIL an animal runs from her. Then she turns into a killing machine. It's been squirrels and rabbits (which she watches until they run - she's okay if they're just hopping/walking around) and I'm very careful with her around other dogs and cats.

Again - I wish I had an answer. I'm sorry for all that's happened.

I don't think she is behaving aggressively, but like I said I haven't seen her. I haven't been able to bring myself to. We haven't asked a vet. She hasn't had any health problems recently. She's a good weight and she's had a good appetite. She probably had more thanksgiving food then I did since we couldn't go home for the holiday.

She does get interested when she sees squirrels but she's not prey driven to the point where anything that runs is of interest to her. A dog or cat could run past for example and it wouldn't bother her. I don't think I've ever met a dog that wouldn't chase a squirrel or rabbit. She did get a chicken once years ago but the bird wasn't running. She'd never seen one before and it was so use to dogs that it practically walked over her face with an "eat me" sign on its butt.

I felt bad about this all afternoon - I don't know how you come to terms with the dog after this. I only wish I had some better insight/answers.

I'm so sorry to hear all that Silver.

Some times these things just happen for no reason at all.
My mother had a Great Dane living with poodles, they got along fantastic, never had a problem.
One day she heard a horrible noise outside, went out and there is the Great Dane with one of her poodles in his mouth, shaking him.
We were lucky he survived but it was a long recovery. To this day we have no idea what happened but he has not acted aggressive towards another dog since.

It may have been something to do with the deer it may not have.
She may have just seen a flash of something moving and her instincts kicked in.

Again, I am very sorry to hear this, it's always hard losing a much loved pet.

It's not the same thing but I investigate a LOT of dog bites and this story is very familiar - dog raised with children, never a problem, suddenly one day it bites a child. Of course, the dog can't talk so who knows what led up to it.