johnvano.com: Dogs Wedged Together, Man Feels 'Violated'

"I knew there was trouble when I heard the frightened screams... Frightened little dog screams." -- John Vano of Atlanta, Georgia

Orange Park, FL--It had the makings of a beautiful day for the Vano family, vacationers from Georgia. John and Paula Vano, frequent visitors to the Jacksonville area, were feeding their children breakfast, planning a day trip to the beach, and taking the dog out for a morning constitution.

"That's when I heard the screams," said Vano, "coming from the dining room." Running to check on the commotion, Vano says he was confident that their male maltipoo, Toby, had slipped back into the house to violate his mother's poodle, Sannibel. "He's been jonesing for that dog the whole year we've had him. Every time we visit, doesn't matter if he's half her size, or twice her size--like he is now," Vano said about the maltipoo.

What Vano encountered in the dining room was unlike anything he had seen before--a 6-pound dog cowering under a dining room chair as his dog sat backward against her. "I knew what was going on," he told reporters, "but couldn't figure out how he (Toby) got it backwards like that." After yelling for his maltipoo to "get off," the dog ran, dragging the small poodle behind him.

"They were still attached, he was running scared from me, dragging her along... bumping and skipping behind him. I'm afraid that I shamed him--now he must think that what he's doing was wrong. Really, that's not what I intended," said Vano.

After rounding up the dogs with his wife, Paula, the Vanos tried to pry the dogs gently apart. "Immediately, the kids are all asking, 'what's happening?'," recalled Vano. "I tell them, 'their butts are stuck together. That's all--their butts got stuck, now go watch the television."

After getting the dogs into the bathtub, and shutting the children out, the Vanos tried to give the dogs a cold bath. Then, after Vano's father brought some lubricant, Paula Vano tried to incorporate that into the separation. "Nothing was working," said Vano. "Finally, I got my hands in there and gave one last pull. The dogs were real gentle--it was odd... just as calm as can be. But they were stuck. My dad kept talking about Toby having 'a hook inside'." After more pulling, Vano finally moved into a more precise evacuation.

"I touched Toby's plug--tried to tug it, but it was longer than it looked. There was just more and more of it, and nothing was releasing. That's when I worked a bit on the outlet, but still nothing. Finally, with Paula pouring cups and cups of cold water on their intersection--they came apart."

With the dogs independent again, calm returned to the home, but the children--six of them, ranging in age from 2 to 8--kept asking, "How did they get their butts stuck together?" At press time, there were still no easy answers coming from their parents.