Yeah I was thinking a .45 which is what I carried to the mail box when my idiot neighbors had a loose aggressive pit bull. Fortunately it crossed the rainbow bridge....
It has been a long time since I read about it but the U.S. military special forces used to have a pistol/cartridge combination they called “the hush puppy”.
It was designed to carry a silencer and take out sentries etc. and of course barking dogs. I think the first ones were S&W model 39 pistols heavily modified to carry a silencer and take Browning Hi-Power mags.
Of course they used heavy bullet non-supersonic loads. Maybe used sub machine guns too but my memory is getting old.
Did it cross over with or without holes in it?