Happy Ending

This has nothing to do with sewing but I want to share it anyway.

Last night, DH and I decided to go out for dinner to a local Chinese buffet-style restaurant. Both DS's and their girlfriends joined us. We were all set for a fun dinner with our largish group. We all piled into the car and headed out.

As we were making our way to the highway, we traveled up one of the through streets in surburbia-land and were slowed down by other cars ahead of us dodging something in the middle of our lane. When it was our turn to dodge, we saw exactly what the roadblock was — a big yellow lab Old Yeller kind of dog laying on his side, head away from us, and his "buddy" standing next to him. Oh no!!

There was NO WAY we could just drive on and not look back … and WHAT were those other people who did just that thinking anyway? Not to mention the creep who had hit him and kept going.

We stopped the car and turned on the hazard flashers. The "buddy" dog had already taken off down the road and we couldn't get him. From the car, we could immediately see the dog on the road was still alive as his paws were moving slightly. DH and I got out to investigate. DH walked around to the dog's head and all looked fine there. There were some bloody wounds on the dog's front foreleg, but his legs all looked to be in normal position. There was a collar about 10 feet away (I don't even want to think about how that happened), but there were no tags on it.

I called 911 and asked that they send an Animal Control unit to pick up the dog and another officer to direct traffic, which was starting to get a little out of hand with all the rubberneckers and us "parked" in the middle of the road. I really wanted to put the dog in our car and take him to an emergency vet but I was afraid of hurting him worse by the movement and effort it would take to get this big guy into the back of our car.

An older couple came out from their yard and stood with us next to the dog, telling us they had just heard a loud THUMP! and were out to investigate. We all were talking sweet nothings to the dog to keep him calm and the good boy started wagging his tail. Poor guy.

While we were waiting for Animal Control to show up, another man stopped his pick-up truck on the side of the road, got out and started walking to the group next to the injured dog. (I was trying to direct traffic at this point, since it was badly needed.) It turned out this man is a vet!! A brand new one, who had just opened his office nearby not even 3 months ago.

The vet said he would load the dog into his truck and take him back to his office to check him out. Another man had also stopped at this point and joined us. He volunteered to leave his car so he could go with the vet to keep the dog calm and as comfortable as possible during the ride. Fearing internal injuries (the dog was still laying flat on its side with no effort to get up after the 15 or so minutes we had been there), we all thought that at the very least, this dog could be helped to go peacefully with a trained vet instead of just dying on the road, scared and in pain, with cars zooming past. We quickly made a makeshift "gurney" with a tarp so we could lift the dog in one motion into the vet's truck.

Before the vet and other kind stranger left with the dog, I jotted down the vet's name and number, introduced myself and told him I'd call him in the morning. We called 911 back and updated the operator on the situation, and then got back into the car and went on our way, sad for the dog but happy that fate had sent the vet past us when we needed him.

We went to dinner and after we got back home, I had already decided that IF the dog had made it through the night and the vet needed a foster volunteer, I would take him in. My sons kidded me, of course, knowing that we might end up with dog #4, and a big one at that. I fell asleep thinking about the dog.

This morning, I called the vet's office. The dog was OK!! They had cleaned and stitched up his external leg wounds but had found no internal injuries. His owner had found out what had happened and picked him up last night, so the big guy didn't even have to spend a night away in a strange place. (The dog had gotten out of their yard and they were out looking for him when all this was taking place.)

I even got a call from the Sheriff's Department this morning, following up to see what had happened to the dog.

I love a happy ending! And I know which new local vet is going to get three new poochie patients, who are due for their vaccines this month.