Domestic violence

In the early 90's, I was in my first job out of school. I became friends with a woman there whose marriage went south while I knew here. She knew her husband had been an alcoholic, but he wasn't drinking when she married him. Apparently, he started drinking again sometime after they got married. He was also a bit unstable. She must have mentioned her unhappiness with the situation to him, but his response was, "If you ever leave me, I'll kill you."

One day, this woman arrived home from work to find their dog, a German shepherd, lying on the floor of the garage. The husband had taken a knife and repeated stabbed the dog, apparently leaving the dog for dead. When she asked him why he'd done this, his response was, "The dog jumped the fence."

She got a restraining order, and the police escorted her husband out of the house. I'm glad I can say this didn't turn into an article in the local newspaper. He stayed away from here, and they eventually got a divorce. Not that this was by any means a happy ending, as she had two small children at the time, but certainly better than a tragic ending.