Mickey

I love dogs. The bigger a dog is the more I love ’em. I love little dogs, too and I really don’t care what breed. I’m just a typical dog lover.

I also love 4-year-old kids. It’s a great age: discovery, wide-eyed wonderment, curiosity. I suppose it was curiosity that led the little guy to a neighbor’s property where he allegedly opened the gate to the back yard, where a family pet was chained.

We are told the child attempted to take the dog’s bone and was bitten and seriously injured. We know what to do with the child. Heal the wounds, no matter how many procedures are necessary. But what do we do with Mickey, the dog?

The automatic response would be to put the animal down, to euthanize him. After all, he was a pit bull who attacked a child.

But there seems to be mitigating circumstances and Tuesday a judge decided Mickey should live — defanged, neutered and microchipped — but live. And perhaps there may come a time when that curious little boy would agree that’s the just thing to do.

I’m Pat McMahon.

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