Bad Mommy!

This is a "How could I have let this happen to my child" moment.
An "It's all my fault" scenario.
One of those "I should have been more vigilant" type things.
It's an "I'm gonna beat myself up about this one for a while" kind of situation.

See, I let my child get bit by a stupid, inbred, idiotic, psycho Cocker Spaniel.
The thing that tricked me was that the nice little family of four passed by on an evening walk - the little ones in the Radio Flyer. It always starts out the same. My kids say, "Excuuuuuse meeee! May we pet your dog?" We all go to the sidewalk, intercept them and squat down to pet their dog. Everytime - and I mean everytime, I tell my children to stay out of the dog's face. And I did it this time too. But I guess I was too late because before I knew what happened, Canon was screaming and holding his eye.

What is the appropriate response at a moment like this?
A number of options ran through my head. But somehow, I remained calm in order to bring control and not to exacerbate the chaos.

So I hugged Canon and told him to take a deep breath. I checked him over carefully knowing that if we went to the ER, that unfortunate family would be getting a bill in the mail.

But he seemed ok. Thank God the dog missed his actual eyeball....

The people were very apologetic, but somewhat disengaged. Perhaps they were stunned and embarrassed. Perhaps they were waiting for me to sue them right then and there.

I just kept thinking about what Creighton would have done if one of our dogs bit a child. He would have beat the freaking animal within an inch of it's life - regardless of how many kids and neighbors witnessed it. Both my dad and Creighton's dad would have taken the dog out back and blown it's head off.

These folk simply said, "Tanner, no."

And that is why it comes back to me. I can't be responsible for how someone trains or non-trains their dog. I can only be responsible for how I teach puppy-petting-etiquette to my own children. And I can say that after tonight, I'm gonna be a tad more hardass about it.

Sorry I had to learn this lesson on you Buddy.