Rob and I took a late lunch today and went to Ziggies to see what Brendan had cooked up. On the way home the car in front of us swerved and we saw something lying in the street. As we got closer it was a dog. It had been hit by a car but was still alive. Rob put on the flashers and jumped out to see if he could help it. I ran to the back of the car to get a blanket. We had taken all the blankets out of the car last week when we had it serviced.
Two teenage girls were walking home from school and came over to help. One directed traffic around us and the other took off her jacket and we slid the dog onto the jacket and carried it to the car. It was a female Jack Russel Terrier and appeared to be badly hurt.
We drove to All Creatures, about a block and a half away, and I went in and told them we had a hit and run victim in the car. They went into action. One tech ran out to the car to carry the dog in. One went to pull Dr B out of an exam room to look at the dog. The dog had a collar but I hadn't noticed if there were tags. They said they would scan for a microchip.
A few minutes later Dr B came out. The dog had no tags and no chip. It was badly injured with probable spinal damage. He was giving it something for shock and pain and was having someone call the Humane Society to see if anyone had reported the dog missing. He told me that in 80% of this type of injury the dog doesn't make it even with extensive surgery. If the Humane Society had no record of anyone looking for the dog they would probably recommend euthanasia and he would handle it.
Rob and I both felt so bad. We had hoped that it was something minor that could be treated. We only hope that if one of our dogs was in trouble someone would stop and help it.
UPDATE: I just received a call from All Creatures and the owner was located. The dog is being transferred to the Emergency Clinic and it sounds like the owner is going to try to save it. Apparently her two JRTs escaped from their back yard and the one was injured. I saw the other one standing in a nearby yard uninjured and gave the owner the info that I had. Let's hope there is a happy ending afterall.
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