They say cats have nine lives... let my introduce you to my little dacshund Molly. Molly has had more close calls than I can count. As a tiny puppy she was a champ at wiggling under the fence, and we always were able to catch her before she got hurt. She's prone to a horrible condition called HGE (hemorrhagic gastroenteritis) We've almost lost her a couple of times to that condition. A year and a half ago she leapt off a bed and ruptured a disk in her back. That could have paralyzed her, but didn't.
Well today was her closest scrape ever. This morning around 11 am I answered the door for a gas company representative who was scheduled to do some work. He said "There a young lady sitting down the road here holding a dog who's just been hit. She seems pretty upset...do you know if it might be one of your neighbor's dogs?" I said I'd go see what I could do.
I walked, barefoot, across my yard and across my neighbors yard, and since I didn't have my glasses on, all could see was that she was holding a small brown dog. The college aged girl was crying and said "Do you know who's dog this is? It's a dacshund." I said "Well, my neighbors have 3 dacshunds, and I have one." But in my mind I had ruled out the possibility that it could be Molly because she was in the house..or so I thought. My mind was whirling with the fact that I didn't have my neighbors cell phone numbers, and how would I reach them if one of their dogs had been hit. It never occurred to me that when S let them out to use the bathroom,only moments earlier, our two very bright dogs might have knocked down a gate and escaped the yard.
When I got closer I saw that it was Molly. I said "Oh my God! Molly... oh...hold on!" And I ran back to the house. (Well, I hobbled fast) and began shouting at children to get their shoes on and telling Doug (who was on a business call) to get off the phone. I grabbed the baby from the crib, slipped on some shoes and hurried back out. After buckling the baby in the car, I hurried back to Molly and the waiting woman and gently wrapped her in a towel. The young lady was crying and apologizing profusely, and I was choking back tears and thanking her profusely for staying with Molly. She said never even saw Molly..she just felt a thump and heard yelping. (I cringe as I write that!) I do wish I had gotten her name or had some way to contact her. I'd like to tell her that it wasn't her fault..and we in no way have hard feelings towards her. It was our fault that our dogs escaped the yard.
Molly was very alert, and very happy to see me, but yelped everytime I shifted her. Her hind leg was hanging at a funny angle and she had some deep gashes. We jumped in the car and headed to the vet. The vet sent us home after they got her set up with an iv and so forth because evaluating her would take a good bit of time, but he seemed optimistic.
After wringing my hands all day, waiting for an update, I finally got one. Miraculously, there are no broken bones. Her hind ankle was dislocated, but popped easily back into place. Her cuts and wounds have been cleaned and stitched and her hind leg is in a cast. She was alert and very happy to see us later in the afternoon when we went to check on her. If she eats and drinks and goes to the bathroom tomorrow, she can come home tomorrow afternoon. And getting our old wooden fence replaced with chainlink is now top priority. And until it is..dogs are walked on leash.
