The reality of life is that the unexpected will happen. As it did yesterday in Ottawa to an unfortunate woman, alone at home with four dogs that lived with her and her partner. One of which evidently attacked and mauled her. Neighbours heard her calling for help and when police arrived they were immediately attacked by a large dog which they shot and which escaped by entering the house.

Meanwhile their attention turned to the other large dog that remained outside in furious attack, mauling the woman. That dog was shot dead. The woman was dispatched by ambulance to hospital. The injured dog taken to a veterinary practise. The man of the house arrived home to find his partner admitted to hospital with serious injuries to head, face, arms, and one of their dogs being treated by a veterinarian, the other dead.

Neighbours spoke kindly of the couple. And said they had themselves never come in contact with any of the dogs. When they were out-of-doors it was in the backyard of the house, fully fenced. They described their alarm at what had occurred. And there are often such reports in the news of dogs attacking adults or children, and the harm resulting.

Just like humans, there are dogs who by virtue of genetic inheritance, breeding, training or abuse become threats not only to other dogs but to humans. Attempts to rehabilitate them may succeed for most, but certainly not all. Our daughter who lives rurally, once had a dozen dogs in her household. Most were rescues, several were being fostered for eventual adoption. Any she was unable to retrain to join an adopted family setting were slated to be 'put down'. She refused to allow that to happen and brought those dogs back to live with her.

She was once offered a boxer that had been severely abused. Unlike the other dogs who got on well with one another -- though some would have nothing to do with others -- this dog was a direct, violent threat to the other dogs. To retain him our daughter had to ensure he was kept well away from the others. As time went on it became clear which of the dogs were most in danger by the boxer, and which whose presence he eventually accepted. Tension, as can be imagined, was always present, and it's no way to live.

Our daughter was once attacked herself by the boxer and proved unable to defend herself. Her good fortune in that instance was that someone else, a man, was present and managed to restrain the dog. We thought for certain she would surrender it, convinced it would be impossible to turn its anger around. She did no such thing, continuing to live with its rage and devoting as much attention as she could to it, taking it on walks excluding the others; alternately taking the others en masse for walks while it remained behind. She often put him on an exercise tread machine to work off excess energy.

And this dog whose unreliable temperament had the other dogs on tenterhooks and required that continual special arrangements in their living conditions were mandatory to avoid violence and mayhem became our daughter's very special, most-beloved companion until its death from old age. It never bothered the two cats in the  household. It was relaxed in our daughter's presence and remained emotionally needy even while its anger simmered on low heat until it might suddenly become enraged, requiring immediate calming. With age its temperament moderated. By that time most of the other dogs had also succumbed to a natural lifespan.

Dogs are our special companions. They add much to our lives in a mutual dependency of shared emotions. But they are also horribly abused all too often by emotional deviants who take their frustrations in life to extreme cruelty targeting other animals. The damage they do is lasting. As it is when their victims are humans for whom the capacity to 'forget' violence is nullified by the pain they have suffered. Just like our daughter's boxer. Pain inflicted upon them by people who make no effort to restrain their instincts to attack the vulnerable alters lives forever.