Mama's Hero

What do you do when an unknown dog comes into your yard, barks at you, and doesn't heed your warning to leave (ie. yelling, jumping and clapping)? Unfortunately the answer for most would be to retreat into your house and call animal control. Animal control would then arrive 45 minutes later to find, surprise, no dog, and tell you to call back if you see it again. Well what works for some, just ain't the way it's done here.
You see, I have a son, who is 8, 3 daughters, 4, 2 & 9 months, and a pregnant wife. I will not allow them to be harmed in any way. So I figured that when I saw the dog again, I would go through the ridiculous tribal dance of shooing it away, and when that didn't work, for the safety of my family, I would shoot it. What I didn't expect was for it to come back while I was at the store.
My son and 2 year old daughter were in the trampoline and the dog came back, my wife saw the dog and called for the kids. Gavin said to get his shotgun and shoot it, but she didn't know how to shoot his Stoeger 20 gauge. So my wife brought the gun to Gavin and walked Savannah back to the porch while Gavin trained the gun on the dog and walked backwards to the porch himself. He then proceeded to yell and make a bunch of noise to scare the dog away, but that did nothing and the dog started advancing on my son. Without a second thought, and the safety of his Mama and sisters in mind, he took aim and pulled the trigger, spraying bird shot square into the dogs face. The dog yelped, spun a few times, and ran off. The threat had been neutralized, and Gavin was a knight in shining armor to the girls in this house.
When I got home, He met me at my truck breathing heavy saying," Dad, I did what I had to do." To an adult, this may not seem too monumental, but my boy is 8, he was left with the responsibility to keep his family safe, and he was able to answer the call. Way to go Gavin, your the hero of the day!