Chicago Removes Firehouse Dogs After Family Pet Attacked, Killed

[Buckeye_Democrat]

8. My family had a Dalmatian when I was young.

It was mostly an indoor dog, and friendly to us, but we started putting her in the garage when there were visitors. It gave some earlier visitors unprovoked growls and "warning snaps", so my parents didn't want to risk future bites. That dog had a very strong neck and could shake her head from side-to-side very violently.

It banged on the rear sliding door one night, and I assumed it just needed to go "potty" in the back yard. When it sprinted outside as soon as the door opened, I knew she was after an animal instead. I then turned on the porch light to see a possum hissing at the dog, and I called for her to come to me because I feared the possum might hurt her. Instead, the possum decided to turn around to escape, and the dog immediately grabbed it by the back end. Then she shook it so violently, the vision of it was like a blur.

Something seemed to get flung off through the air during the repeated shaking, but I wasn't sure. Then the dog dropped the possum, sniffed it for a few seconds, and walked back inside the house with a happy demeanor.

I then saw that the possum's head was gone, later finding it several feet away in the general direction of the mysterious object that I believed I saw flying through the air earlier.

The Dalmatian had SHOOK OFF the possum's head! She didn't even bite it around the neck, but the back-end!