It’s pretty quiet at the home of middle-school teacher Ed Bolman these days. But that wasn’t true a month ago, when two of his pets got into an enormous fight, leaving him with a infection.
One of Bolman’s dogs is an English bull terrier named Cortez, who looks exactly like the Target dog.
“He loves people and all animals,” Bolman said.
Bolman’s son has a 16-pound orange domestic shorthair cat named Sampson the beast.
Bolman said that Cortez wants to be friends with Samson, but the cat doesn’t feel the same way.
On the afternoon of Sept. 19, Bolman’s son was in his room playing video games with the door shut. Sampson was sitting in Bolman’s room when Cortez walked in.
Since Sampson doesn’t like Cortez, he ran out of the room. Cortez then chased him. Sampson became cornered at the end of the hall at Bolman’s son’s closed bedroom door.
Sampson attacked Cortez. Bolman heard the struggle and sprinted up the stairs.
When he got to the scene, he saw that Cortez had his mouth around Sampson.
Bolman then tackled Cortez to make him release the cat.
Because Cortez is mellow and not that aggressive, he let go of the cat immediately.
However, Sampson sunk three of his four main teeth into the palm of Bolman’s hand.
Sampson, the cat, bit Bolman’s hand and scratched his leg, as Bolman tried to break up the fight between Sampson and his English bull terrier, Cortez.
Sampson also scratched Bolman’s leg, getting his claws stuck in his skin. The claws broke off the cat’s paw, remaining in Bolman’s leg.
After the situation simmered down, Bolman was the only one hurt.
“I (was) dripping blood when I (stood) up,” Bolman said.
Bolman cleaned himself off and thought he was okay. However, the next day he saw that his hand was really swollen, so he made a trip to the doctor.
According to his doctor, 90 percent of cat bites become infected, so he probably had an infection. The doctor gave Bolman antibiotics and sent him on his way.
Weeks after the fight, Bolman reported that he can still see light scarring from the teeth and claws, which is unusual for him.
“It takes a really major injury for me to scar at all,” Bolman said.
Bolman said that his three cats and four dogs usually get along, but Cortez and Sampson don’t.
This isn’t the first time Cortez and Sampson have gotten into a fight.
A couple months ago, Sampson was hiding under a bed, antagonizing Cortez, Bolman said. Sampson jumped out and hit Cortez on the nose with his paw.
Jumping up, Cortez flipped over a full queen-sized bed.
According to Bolman, Sampson and Cortez are still avoiding each other in the house.
“Although Sampson still treats me like a hero,” Bolman said.
—By Jack Christian
