On Thursday, May 23rd my wife Vania got a new car. When she arrived home with her new car the dogs barked at it and Poguacu even went into the car and peed in it. Two day prior to receiving the car I put a new cover over the back of my small pick up truck and the dogs found this strange too. The next day, Friday the 24th, our friend's father died and we attended his funeral which was at 5:30PM.
Following the funeral I noticed a small opening in the back of the tarp covering the pickup truck. I gave little importance to this fact and assumed that I had forgotten to close it completely so I just snapped it shut. We arrived home from the funeral in separate cars, stopped at the main gate, opened it and were greeted, as usual, by our 8 Fila (3 adults and 5 puppies). We noticed that all of the dogs, even the puppies were barking more than usual at the cars as we drove to the parking area and they continued to bark at them even after we had gotten out. Vania made comment about the fact that the dogs were barking so much at the cars. We entered the house and Vania prepared a snack, we showered, did some things in the house, checked our e-mails, fed the dogs and went straight to bed since we were tired and still a bit depressed. The dogs continued barking at the cars and we thought again that they were barking because of the new car and changes in the truck or maybe at the monkeys which exist in abundance in the trees of our yard.
Vania fell asleep and I continued watching a film on TV. There was so much barking that around 9PM I took the torch and went outside to double check.
As I did not see anything wrong or different, I blamed the monkeys again and returned to bed. I think I slept for a while but once again I woke up at 11:55PM with the dogs still barking at the same place where the cars were parked and where there is a big tree. I was puzzled and decided to really find out what was going on. I got my gun, the torch again and went out to check. The dogs were all excited when they saw me and began running back and forth from the cars. I approached it and suddenly a woman's voice came out of the back of the pick up saying: "Please Mr. put these dogs away and HELP US for they are trying to kill us and one has already bitten my "husband"and he is bleeding." I opened the back completely pointed the gun at them, and the dogs, two of them jumped into the back of the truck and got the man, holding him in the belly and Opala bit the woman's leg but I pulled her back because I felt sorry since it was a woman.
Vania woke up came outside scared and when she saw the situation she brought a leash and asked me to take the man out of Poguaçu's mouth. I did it because she was nervous and felt sorry for the persons. I closed the back of the pick up again, not completely, and the dogs where, including the little ones, mainly a five month old bitch "Jurema II da Jaguara" which kept paying full attention to the people inside and trying to attack them with Poguaçu, jumping at the small truck and barking at the people. While I was holding Poguaçu and Opala, Vania called the police.
They came within 5 minutes so Vania had to put the other dogs in the kennels so that the police could enter the house. I still held Poguaçu on a leash.
The policemen were afraid of him for he was very excited and nervous, attacking any one or anything which moved. I walked a little away from the truck and the police opened the back and dragged the couple out of the back of the pick up. The man was, white, 28 years old, weighing 246 pounds, dressed with a long sleeve shirt and wearing a tie. He was bleeding in the lower part of the back, where the dog bit to hold him, and had one arm broken and torn, which happened when they tried to come out soon after we entered our house. The woman is 32 years old, seemed to be on drugs, had received just a little bite in the left leg where she got 95 stitches, which was also bleeding. They were really scared of the dogs. The police took them to their local headquarters and then to a hospital, and during the interrogation the thieves explained that they were from Rio de Janeiro and pointed out that they normally did this, hid in the cars, vans or trucks and when the owner of the truck or car parked in the garage, they usually came out and stole some things from the people and from the car. The other interesting part was that the man had a knife and a toy gun, an imitation of a 9mm which he used to threaten people since very few people can tell a toy gun apart from a real one.
Then around 1:00 AM it all ended and we thanked God for having such dogs and I was very proud to have "FILAS" in my house, confirming that there is no better protection in this world than a "REAL FILA".
MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL in my point of view is: They have temperament, did not need an agitator to show their "Ojeriza" and they do love and protect us from any intruder at any time, even when we do not know what is going on. The next morning we received a visit from the police again and they asked if they could have a couple of puppies from these dogs.
Since then, I have received a visit from the man in charge of the kennel at the Military Police three times and they came to see the performance of our Filas under stressing situations and performed several simulations to check their behavior. The Major in charge of the kennel decided to buy some Filas to have in their kennel to work as protection dogs in special situations, not to normal police situations for which they still prefer German Shepherds which are easier to control and to handle.
This was another thing which made me really happy.This is our simple story and it is a true recent story.
Olegario, may 2002
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