Reader gets no justice after attack

Dear Annie: I live in Texas in a small neighborhood and am still relatively new to this area. Two years ago, a traumatic event happened to me not long after I’d moved in.

I was on my daily walk through the neighborhood. (I used to go two miles daily, just to clear my head.) I was passing by a neighbor’s yard when their three (unleashed) dogs violently attacked me.

The dogs dragged me 40 yards through a pasture. Fortunately, three men intervened and saved my life. It was a horrific ordeal, and I still suffer from some injuries that I incurred during the attack.

I’ll have to self-catheter for the rest of my life. I have post-traumatic stress syndrome.

My question has to do with the fact that the dog owners were never fined or punished in any way.

I keep trying to tell myself it happened for a reason — that I shouldn’t worry about justice coming out of it. You see, up until the attack, I was agnostic; I didn’t really believe in heaven or hell. But since the attack and those men saving me, I’ve come to believe that there is a higher power and he is very great and merciful.

I still have problems going out for walks. I probably haven’t walked more than 15 feet outside my yard. I still regularly have nightmares about the event and replay it in my head.

The people who own the dogs have more dogs now, just as violent, and they run loose. I keep worrying what would happen if a kid were attacked.

So, should I just accept that as the justice, or is there something else that I should do?

— Sincerely Confused

Dear Confused: You can have faith that God will deliver justice in the end while still pursuing justice yourself in the here and now. Your concern transcends even your own personal trauma: It’s about making sure that this never happens to anyone else. You are rightly terrified. From the sound of it, it’s not a matter of if these dogs will injure someone else but when.

I urge you to contact your local authorities, repeatedly, if necessary. There’s no way that it’s legal for your neighbors to allow their dogs to roam free like that, especially when they have a history of violence. The very least they could do is put up a fence.

I hope you are seeking therapy. You’ve suffered incredibly serious trauma, and untreated PTSD can take a heavy toll both physically and mentally over the long term.

As a supplement to therapy, I would recommend the book The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. I am so sorry that this truly horrible thing happened to you. I pray that one day you can again enjoy your daily walks in the sun.

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