Most insurance companies will not cover certain dogs, but they bury the details in fine prints and page upon page of documents. This is a true story about a greedy mother who caused an innocent and loved dog to be put up for adoption. I should have named this story.."Scammers getting innocent pets killed for money. Insurance letting them."
I had a mastiff mix breed, the dog was friendly and raised among neighborhood kids. The whole community raised this dog. This dog was as gentle as any dog I have ever owned and very well trained. This dog was word command trained and signal command trained. I got the dog in a very difficult time in my life as a 6-week-old puppy and was actually my best friend and a wonderful, wonderful dog. He slept at the foot of my youngest daughters bed and was very protective of all family members.
I own my home and have lived in a mixed yet semi-ghetto neighborhood comprised of about 70% homeowners. I purchased the home in late 1996 and have raised 4 wonderful kids in it. The house next door to us unfortunately is a rental property duplex that is in the states “rent assistance” program, so sometimes the people who rent the property are not the types of individuals you would want to be neighbors with. In the last 3 years we have had burglaries, drug raids and full swat attacks on this property next door. No one has lived there longer than 6 months so we never really get a chance to know our neighbors. This house has even made it onto the news when one of the renters live in boyfriend had a standoff with the local police.
But one family in particular had been living there for about 5 months, they had kids so my kids would often invite them over for sleepover and yard play. They knew our family because they often came to our house when their mother was late letting them in after school. The mother was someone who we talked to only when she needed a favor or baby-sitter. We are friendly people and love children, having four of our own and losing two late in life to stillbirth, so we are the neighborhood parents. We throw parties for our children and invite most of the kids that we have watched grow up in our community.
One day we bought a new play set and the kids from the rental unit next-door came over and played for a few hours with our 10 year old. I neglected to mention that these kids also went to school with our 10 year old. Well on this day they played in the yard from about 10 in the morning till about 5 in the afternoon and their mom finally showed up and told them to come in the house. My daughter also went inside and took the dog, Nature, in the house also. The dog was always a part of neighborhood kids play sessions, and everyone knew the dog since the dog was about 2 months old and old enough to go outside. Well the boy and girl went across the driveway home and into the house. About 5 minutes later they came back having forgotten their shoes. They went into the backyard to get their shoes and the dog thought they were coming back to play, he takes shoes and you have to chase her to get them back. The dog is in the house but hears the kids come back and follows them into the backyard trying to get at their shoes. At this time the mother comes out (the mother is afraid of dogs) and sees the dog trying to pull off shoes and over reacts and screams. This scares the dog, the little girl and the little boy. She completely panics the kids and they run off to join their mother who has taken a stick and is trying to wallop my dog. The dog quits and runs back into the house.
About 20 minutes later we see a police cruiser and ambulance pull up next door, we of course run out to see what the problem is. The mother has called the police and told them that the dog tried to attack her kids and had actually bitten one of them. We are interviewed by the police and threatened by the police for having a vicious dog. Well the ambulance comes and determines that the scratch on the little girls leg was not a bite mark after all but a scrape from the bushes that separate the two properties. They slap a band-aide on the little one and go on their way. The police however load us down with over $900 worth of tickets, which we have to go to court on and have just recently finished paying off. We were freaking out confused wondering if the dog may have bitten the girl, we knew the dog was very gentle but stranger things have happened. We stayed there the whole time concerned for the girl, and were more than relieved when the Para-medics explained that the dog had done nothing at all to the girl. We thought it was over, but it wasn’t, not even close, the worst was still to come.
We get a letter in the mail a few days later from an attorney informing us that we were being sued for a pit-bull attack. Long story short, the insurance company settled even though we opted to fight because we knew that the dog never bit the child and even had the Para-medics and 4 city police officers agree to be witnesses for us at the hearing. They greedy and dishonest mother got a settlement for over $12,000 and our insurance got cancelled which was the most hurting blow of all of this mess. We now have a mark against us and have to settle for state insurance because no other companies will take us because of the vicious dog settlement. I really wish I could sue the insurance company for denying us our right to fight the accusation. But as they told us, “we would never have covered you if we knew what kid of dog you had.” So in this fiasco my 10 year old lost her best friend, we lost our homeowners insurance and our dog had to be given up over a dog attack that never happened, all because a insurance company has a policy that they don’t fight accusations when it involves certain dog breeds even if it is a mixed breed. Those cowards are just as bad as the unemployed rent assistance mother who lied and walked through their loopholes.
Of course we are all right two years later and my daughter was given a Chihuahua puppy by one of the neighbors and the woman moved 2 days after the settlement, she had a new car which really stung because she never had a car before. The one thing I remember most though is that the lady’s mother asked her did we own the house when she came to check on the kids after the supposed bite. And 2 days later we were sued, and they were supposed to be saved Christians. And to the insurance company, you really need to stop being cowards and money worshippers.
But now I do background checks on every person that moves into that house, I need to know what I am up against.
Great background check place.
I'm sold, Where do i sign up?
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