Lawsuit Abuse- Is it Ethical or Legal to Sue Your Dog?

Greetings Fellow Travelers...

I must begin with an admission.

Something happened to me that had never happened before. Oh, I've come close a few times; instances where it SHOULD have happened. However, it had not reached this degree, ever.

My dog, my beautiful pure bred Golden Retriever, Dash- (gulp) - knocked me out.

It was only for a second or two, but the knot on my head stayed for a few days. There were two cuts, one on the knot and one below it, the latter being fairly deep.

Here's how it happened.

I had been riding my Harley one afternoon, and, after letting it cool down, I started it up to put it away in my little shop in back of my house. The ramp I use to get the bike into the shop is at the end of a path made of large stepping stones that runs from the back door of the house. The shop runs perpendicular to the house, so the path takes a soft 90 degree turn.

Now, the ground was nice and smooth- until The Dasher showed up. He loves to dig holes, which he has done, many times. This means I run a gauntlet, maneuvering my bike onto the path.

He is also an escape artist that could give Houdini a run for his money. No matter what I tried, I would either have a neighbor bring him back home, or see him myself, running around the front yard.

One early morning I found he had escaped and dragged a neighbors water hose home! Fortunately, he had grabbed the hose at one end, and the hose led me back to the proper owners house.

So, I made a harness out of an extra piece of cable, left over from his 75 foot long cable run. He has even escaped from that- until I followed his vets advice and had him neutered.

Since then he has not escaped.

If I were writing a short fiction piece about the incident I might use either his neutering experience or his being kept on a cable run as motivation for what he did. However, I know this animal. He would never try to hurt me.

But hurt me he did.

As I stated earlier, I was slowly and carefully bringing my Harley up onto the path that leads to the ramp. Normally, Dash would play "catch me if you can" while I was putting the bike away, and he would be far enough behind me at this point so that the pulley riding the cable would also be behind me.

It was not; I had not noticed that it was in FRONT of me!

I remember slowly giving the bike some throttle while easing out the clutch. Then, all of a sudden, there was a loud "PKFSKT" sound, and the lights went out.

When I came to I was still on the bike, the engine was still running and my left hand was still squeezing the clutch. The bike, however, was at a 40 degree angle and dropping.

I managed to stop its descent, and, with great effort, bring her back to level. With the clutch still disengaged by my left hand I used my right to check my forehead where the pain was and felt a lump. The fingers I had used came back with blood on them as well. I wiped them off on my jeans and managed to get the bike into the shop.

After getting off the bike I stood, with shaky, unsteady legs, and felt the now much bigger lump, and wiped even more blood off of my hand.

After closing the door I looked at Dash, who had a guilty look on his face. I petted his head and told him that it was not his fault. He is far too sweet to try and hurt me. God help any possum that comes too close!

Janie fixed me up, (after a bit of a freak out!), and today you can't even tell that anything ever happened. Of course, I had to take some ribbing from co-workers about being knocked out by a dog, but, that's OK.

Needless to say I am a lot more careful about knowing exactly where that pulley is at any given time. And I would only be suing myself if I did take Dash to court, plus, as an aspiring writer, I'm not so sure the publicity would be of a positive note.

Or would it?