Normalcy Bias At my Door Step

A week ago I was arriving home from my weekly visit to my mother who lives 185-miles away. I try to get down to her regularly if the weather is good to run errands and spend some time with her. Arriving home, I pulled into my drive way and there sitting on my lawn was a beautiful male white and brown Siberian Husky with a halter. I got out of the car and it ran over to me then took off across our dirt road to my neighbors property. I chuckled and walked down to the cabin.

As I walked into the cabin I said to MrsMac, “hey hon I am home. Did you see that Siberian Husky outside?”

She held up her two hands and said, “yes it attacked me when I tried to shoo it off the porch. It was attacking the outside cats on the porch.” She filled me in on some more details. I grabbed my Springfield Armory AR pistol and walked out of the house aiming to put that dog down.

He wasn’t on my property so I walked over to my neighbors property. My neighbor lets call him Tom, was loading up his outside wood burning boiler. I asked him, “hey Tom. Is there a Siberian Husky around your house?”

He closed the boiler door clapped the dust from his hands and said, “yeah. He showed up sometime early this morning. We think it belongs to a guy in town.” Now town is all of ~800 residents and four miles away.

Tom went on to explain that his daughter put a post on FaceBook about the dog on a town site and she received a response. The dog belonged to XYZ. The person who responded from town told her that they would let the owner know.

I explained to Tom that the dog attacked MrsMac and was going to put the dog down. His daughter who had joined the conversation told us that the dog had nipped her in the thigh when she tried to capture the dog and put him on a lead earlier in the day. He didn’t break the skin but she had developed a nice black & blue bruise.

By this time Tom’s whole family had gathered and was watching the drama happening in real time. I could see the Siberian Husky hiding up in Tom’s vegetable garden and decided, wrong or right, to not put it down then and there. I thanked Tom and walked back home.

Upon entering the house I asked MrsMac to get ready as I was going to take her to the ER at out 30-bed rural hospital. She started to protest but acquiesced and started to get ready. While she was getting ready I called the State Trooper barracks. Well that was a waste of time as there was no Trooper available to come to our house for a dog bite. The Sergeant recommended that I take my wife to the hospital ASAP which I did.

At the hospital, she was taken care of very quickly and efficiently by a RN and Doctor while I filled out a mountain of paperwork. They washed out her wounds and gave her a tetanus shot and loosely wrapped her wounds. They also gave her a script for an antibiotic.

It is a little over a week since the attack and MrsMac is doing well. Her wounds are healing nicely. The Doctor was worried about ligament damage but as of this writing she can now close her thumb and pinky fingers now.

Okay, the reason for this story is not to whine but to caution all the AP readership of normalcy bias. Normalcy bias is a disease we all succumb to at times in our lives. Stay vigilant folks. There is a Siberian Husky right around the corner from you or a member of your family just waiting. Especially, with November 3 only ten days off.

Stay vigilant!

Freedom Through Self-Reliance

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By Published On: October 23, 2020Categories: Medical19 Comments on Normalcy Bias At my Door Step

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About the Author: johnyMac

19 Comments

  1. Anonymous October 23, 2020 at 06:23

    5

  2. Suburban Dude October 23, 2020 at 08:56

    JM;

    You sir, are a better man than I, for I’d have dropped that dog, no questions asked..

    I am glad the Mrs is ok…

    Great observation on NB syndrome too…

    • johnyMac October 23, 2020 at 09:36

      Thank you Suburban Dude. She is doing just fine with a little bit higher situational awareness in her step now though.

      Funny addition to the tale…We received a phone call from a RN at the County Dept. of Health. Who knew there was such a thing. Anyway, she called to check on MrsMac and to find out how the dog, supposedly in quarantine was doing. I explained to her that the dog belonged to someone in town, 4-miles away. I also told her that some of my Bible Study friends who live close to the dog, reported to me that the dog has been roaming the neighborhood.

      Well the county RN went nuts and insisted that MrsMac go into the ER immediately and start her regiment of rabies shots. I laughed and said, how about the county Dog Warden do his job.

      Ya’ got to love it.

      God Bless Brother

  3. Zack Wiz October 23, 2020 at 09:51

    Glad she is ok, thank you for sharing this story

    • johnyMac October 23, 2020 at 10:54

      So am I Zack Wiz. She was pretty ornery for a few days.

      God Bless Brother

  4. wwes October 23, 2020 at 10:12

    It’s good to hear that Mrs. Mac is recovering well!
    I understand about not putting the dog down with everyone watching, even being within the law, things like that don’t seem to turn out so well with everyone watching. With that said, that dog would have sealed it’s fate in my eyes if it showed up on my property after that.
    Our county animal control will very rarely come out to pick up a problem animal, but NC law allows you to dispatch a dangerous dog, or one that is a threat to people or livestock. Not that state statues would stop me from defending my animals or family.

    • johnyMac October 23, 2020 at 10:55

      Amen wwes…Amen

  5. JackalopeinTN October 23, 2020 at 10:13

    Hi Johny,
    Sorry to hear about Mrs. Mac getting attacked. I, too, would be concerned about rabies, ’cause you never know. Imagine if that was a child that was attacked, that changes the entire scenario, because a child isn’t typically capable of defending themselves. And, it’s for the children….

    Anyways, it’s good to hear that Mrs. Mac is recovering well. Sounds like she needs to start carrying when you’re not around. You showed an amazing amount of restraint, I’m not sure how I would have reacted. If things kick off in the next week or so, I think normalcy bias will quickly disappear.

    • johnyMac October 23, 2020 at 10:57

      Jackalopein TN, you wrote If things kick off in the next week or so, I think normalcy bias will quickly disappear.

      I agree 100%!

      Say howdy to the XYL from us.

      73 Brother

  6. Brad October 23, 2020 at 13:22

    That sucks. I hope your wife heals up alright. I live in an extremely conservative county. Upscale. We have full on sign political sign wars going on around here. People put up Trump signage and it gets torn down the next morning. I’m an early morning gym guy and have caught people in the act of tearing down these signs while en route. I would expect teenagers or young people. Nope. These morons are 50 plus. Freaken amazing. I stopped on one occasion and told them they were breaking Federal Election laws. There response? FU. These people are insane with hate. They are so angry they are ready to get violent. I guess the Zombie Apocalypse was real after all.

    • johnyMac October 23, 2020 at 14:50

      Brad, yupper! The Zombie Apocalypse is only twelve days off.

      I was talking to my county Sheriff the other day and he told me that his deputies have handed out a bunch of citations already on this kind of vandalism. He went on to say, that most of the folks doing the tearing down are older Biden women. His office gets leads from people reporting the vehicle license plate numbers of the vandals. Last, his biggest concern is someone getting beaten up, shot, or “accidentally” hit by a vehicle.
      ,
      It is a crazy world.

      God Bless

  7. Joe Brackhan October 23, 2020 at 14:28

    Shoot the dog.

    • johnyMac October 23, 2020 at 14:57

      The County Dog Warden just called and said the dog is being put down Monday by the County Vet. The dog’s head will be sent to Harrisburg to check for rabies.

      I just told MrsMac and she said, “good!” She tends to hold a grudge. ;-)

      73 Brother

  8. Mark. October 23, 2020 at 14:30

    Shoot the dog.

  9. Michael October 23, 2020 at 16:31

    Glad to hear the story had a good so far resolution johnyMac. Just a few thoughts thoughts if I might.

    1st I’ve found Dogs act a lot like their owners. If this dog tests negative for rabies (and I am PRAYING it does) and it seems word got around you were the “reason” for it’s demise there may be a bit of trouble? As in we forgot the 3 “S” rule of shoot, shovel and shut up? Don’t get me wrong you did the reasonable thing but not all folks are reasonable.

    I had a dog needing shooting and it’s owner tried to cause me a lot of trouble but happily I have an excellent relationship with the Sherriff so that failed. Then I had a unexpected flat tire, then I had something in my dogs dish I didn’t put there. Happily my dog was with me at the time so didn’t eat it. I finally sent him a welcoming committee and he moved out of state.

    2nd If food shortages get real Dogs will be left to fend for themselves. And as you well know they form packs unafraid of humans. I had a sheep ranch in Eastern Washington and saw during the 70’s recession a huge uptick in dog packs. Spent a lot of time shooting them and even then lost some sheep and neighbor kids were bitten.

    Recently I upgraded my “garden gun” when I had a weird acting stranger dog ignore my shouts, a few thrown rocks that hit it and finally I used the 22 caliber cowboy special on it. It was loaded with 3 shorts for a quiet pest removal (I have a senior neighbor with PTSD) and three Long Rifles. I got several solid hits before it left. The shorts were clearly not effective enough on that dog.

    Angry Dog owners, Dog packs and Gimme Dats are a real problem once things get spicy. Take care my friend.

    • johnyMac October 23, 2020 at 16:59

      Michael, all good points and thank you for sharing your experiences.

      I went after the Siberian Husky with a AR Pistol loaded with green tip ammo. In retrospect, I should have grabbed by riot shotgun loaded with 00 instead. I like nine .32 cal round balls going down range rather than one or two .223 rounds. Live and learn.

      You take care Brother…God Bless

  10. Fitty October 23, 2020 at 18:32

    Just wondering if frangible rounds would have been a better choice than green tips?

    • johnyMac October 24, 2020 at 08:17

      ABSOLUTELY Fitty. In retrospect I should have grabbed the riot shotgun loaded with 00.

      Take care Brother

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