I used to think I was a good neighbor. I kept my eyes shut and my ears closed to the four rambunctious dogs that belonged to my backyard neighbor. Every time one of my three children was playing outside, or throwing the ball to our own dog, their dogs would bark incessantly.

Buster, a white dog and the newest addition to my neighbor’s backyard pack of dogs, would constantly run back and forth along the fence line. From my family’s observations, this daily activity seemed to be his only form of exercise. All four dogs were outside day and night, receiving no human attention — except for the 4-year-old granddaughter of the owners who was living there part time. She frequently played with the dogs without any supervision from an adult.

Buster developed a habit of jumping over our fence and eating our dog’s food on our patio. I could’ve brought this up to Buster’s owners and demanded they take steps to prevent this behavior from continuing. But instead, I chose to be a good neighbor and simply asked my husband to herd Buster back over the fence. I also chose to be a good neighbor when the four dogs would wake my infant son up time after time during the late hours of the night with their persistent and noisy barking. Despite waking up frequently to a crying, sleepy baby, I chose to keep my mouth shut. I did not want to disturb the peace in my neighborhood by complaining or asking for something to be done about these rowdy, uncontrolled animals.

On April 6 this year, my whole vision of being a good neighbor, and a good member of society, changed. My daughter Sophia, age 9, was throwing the ball to our dog in the backyard while my younger two children were getting their bath. The backyard neighbor’s granddaughter was, as usual, in their yard, alone, with the four barking dogs.

Sophia accidentally threw the ball too far and it landed in their yard. She asked the granddaughter to toss it back over the fence to her, but the granddaughter said she couldn’t: Buster, the fence jumper, had gotten ahold of the ball and she was too scared to approach him. “You come get the ball”, she replied.

Sophia asked again for the little girl to throw her the ball and again was told no, just come get it yourself. So Sophia tentatively climbed over the fence and slowly walked towards the ball in Buster’s mouth. The dog lunged at her, standing on his hind legs to push her down into a pile of pinecones, and bit so deeply into my daughter’s cheek that his teeth reached her jawbone. This was not the love bite of a playful dog, or a nip a dog gives in warning. Buster ripped Sophia’s cheek apart. He released long enough for her to get up, jump over the fence and into the house. She was immediately taken to the E.R.

I will never be able to erase the image of my daughter’s bloody cheek, and the serious punctures to her temple, from my mind. Fat and connective tissue seeped from the wound. As a parent, there is nothing worse than feeling powerless to make your child all better, unable to make the pain and hurt and fear go away. She needed over 40 sutures and required general anesthesia to clean the wound. Her temple wound was so severe that the doctors had to check for brain damage — thankfully, there was none. However, the dog’s forceful bite had badly damaged the nerve in her cheek and left her whole left cheek paralyzed: she couldn’t smile, and she couldn’t even close her left eye.

A month later, after countless doctor appointments and hours spent at the hospital instead of in school, her external wound is finally starting to heal, but half of her beautiful face remains paralyzed. The doctors say the nerve may heal in six months or a year, or it may never heal and may require future high-risk surgeries.

Sophia’s spirit is damaged from the trauma. She replays the incident in her head over and over every day. Worst of all, when she opened the blinds of her bedroom after returning from the hospital, she could see straight into the neighbor’s backyard, where the dog who forced this trauma upon her remained. Due to the location of the incident, in the backyard neighbor’s yard, and because the dog was up to date on his shots, the dog was allowed to be “quarantined” on his own property. So there he was, visible every day, capable of jumping over the fence if he wanted to. The quarantine ended after just 10 days.

I mourn the loss of my daughter’s beautiful smile, her cheerful attitude. And I mourn for all of my children, who no longer feel safe enough to play in their own backyard. At first I was angry at the dog, and I still am. But also, when I opened the blinds and saw that 4-year-old girl chasing Buster, just asking for him to bite her too, I realized I am even more angry that the dog owners had chosen to keep this dog alive and in contact with children.

My daughter could have lost an eye if the dog had bitten her just a little higher up on her face. If he had bitten lower on her neck, she could be dead. If she didn’t have the wherewithal in that situation to get up and run, he would have continued attacking her. My daughter is going to be teased at school for having a half-paralyzed face. She won’t have the life she would have otherwise had. And yet that dog continues to pose a threat of possibly injuring someone else, or worse yet killing someone.

I don’t know why the laws don’t make it mandatory for a dog like this to be put down, but maybe part of the reason is that most reasonable and responsible pet owners would take it upon themselves to have this done. The city had filed a “vicious dog” suit, and I was told that the most likely outcome would be for the neighbors to build a higher fence to contain the dog. They would have had to buy an insurance bond to keep the dog.

Instead, last week, the decision was made to move the dog to Columbia Falls. The city suit was dropped. The dog was not declared vicious, though he is supposed to wear a muzzle if he returns to Kalispell. He is not required to be muzzled in any other city or town, and the dog bite records don’t follow him, although notification of the incident was reported between animal wardens.

This solution has only put a Band-Aid on the problem: The dog will still be in residence with the 4-year-old. What about that child? What about that child’s visiting friends? Who will protect those children from this out-of-control animal? Furthermore, what about the new neighboring families of the dog, not to mention the entire town of Columbia Falls? If the assault had come from a human instead of a dog and all charges were dropped if the person just moved away, the community would be outraged. The system would fail for humans, and it will fail for this violent dog as well.

Julie Knapp is a resident of Kalispell.