Karma
On Saturday the 9th, Sarah and I decided to take a trip out to Cabelas to get some incredibly comfortable chairs and some shirts. A pretty simple trip right? Nope.
We were just about to the Pleasant View exit when we started noticing a lot of semi-tire pieces on the road ("gators" as the wide load escorts seem to call them.) So of course, everyone in front of us was slowing down and swerving. That's when we noticed one of the gators trying to stand up, then fall, stand up, then fall. SHIT it was a chocolate lab that's been hit! Sarah jumped on the brakes and got out to see what she could do. By this time, we notice another pointer mix that was milling around his buddy...and wouldn't respond to calling or whistles. I tried to get him off the road as Sarah went to assess the injured dog. There were a lot of people backed up by this time (think noon on a Saturday between Coeur d'Alene and Spokane in July.) Folks were generally being pretty good and we had a decent number of folks trying to herd the pointer as well as direct traffic to one lane. Well, the pointer just kept running west down the middle of the interstate so I left the chase and decided to keep an eye on traffic instead....that's when I noticed my angel wrapping the labrador in a blanket and begin carrying him toward the car.
We popped the Subaru's hatch and put the poor guy in there on Lucca's bed. Sarah mentioned some road rash on both his hips, a hurt leg, and the fact that he kinda crapped himself. (I would have done the same thing if I was hit by a car.) But he ended up laying there, then standing up and looking out the window....doing good and not whining which I thought was amazing. The gal that hit him was still milling around her car looking at us, so I went to talk with her. I told her we were headed to the Post Falls Animal Hospital and that we'd call her with any updates. She handed me her husband's card and said her number was on the back. (Of course, the husband owned "Touchdown Tuxedos" in Post Falls....what are the chances of THAT?)
Well, we ended up at the Animal Hospital and this guy didn't want to get out of the car....looking pretty scared to be out in the open again. But, despite the danger of getting bit, Sarah scooped him up and hauled him inside. The folks there checked his heartbeat and weighed him, checked for a micro-chip, got our information...then animal control came in. Sarah was asking if they were going to do x-rays or anything and they said no..."unless you want to incur the charges. Otherwise, we have to hand him over to animal control." Hmmm, odd...what happened to just doing the right thing? ie) At least cleaning him up. After confirming that he had more than three days for the owner to find him before they put him down, we left...promising to follow up on Monday. Unfortunately the animal control guy said they could only put him up and give him some pain pills. Can you imagine? A possible broken leg and all you get is some aspirin?
So obviously we were jacked up and rather disappointed in how things were playing out, but we made our way back toward Cabelas. There we bought everything mentioned and I had to pick up a nice North Face jacket under the "impulse buy" influence....it was a spendy coat. But, I now had seven shirts that didn't have holes in them, something that has been driving Sarah nuts. When the fella rang me up, the total seemed pretty darn reasonable for Cabelas...but I just figured those other $25 shirts were on discount. In the car, Sarah mentioned that the tiller's meter hadn't moved after the first shirt was scanned. I checked the receipt and found out that I had just acquired six shirts for the price of one! Hmmm.
I weighed the choice before me and realized this was a pretty significant decision. Was this our payment for helping the lab out? Or was this just another test of our morals?
What would YOU do?
I went back inside. I HAD to. I found the first available teller as the dude that helped us wasn't around, and as it turns out, she was a manager of sorts. So she called him up and I told her I didn't want to get anyone in trouble, I just needed to be honest for my own well-being. She kinda reamed him and he held up his hands and laughingly said, "That's the last time I touch one of those things." (So it obviously wasn't his normal job there...just trying to step in and help out.) She told him, "Well, I'm going to give him a discount for being honest." My hopes rose, until she said she was going to give me 10% off. Bummer, but at least it kept my remaining total below $100!
So things all worked out fairly well, but we were still pretty concerned about the dog. When we got home I called the gal up and told her what happened and she mentioned that she was going to go down to animal control and check on him. That was pretty nice (and darn responsible...a lot of people wouldn't give a shit.) I told her Sarah's plan for Monday and we said our goodbye's.
This morning I got a bizarre text from Sarah asking for my work's fax number....so I gave it to her. Then she wrote, "I just sent you a fax. :)" I ran downstairs and found this:
SUBJECTIVE SECTION
A neutered male chocolate Labrador was struck by a car and presented to the emergency clinic by good Samaritans Tom Elliott and Sarah Kaufman (employee of Mountain View Veterinary Clinic.) ...Animal Control took responsibility of the dog after arrival.
OBJECTIVE SECTION
At presentation the chocolate lab is in good weight with abrasions to both hind limbs, worse on the right. The right hock folds and seems rather unstable suggesting tendon rupture. He can bear weight on it and is moderately painful to palpation of the limb. Heart and lungs auscult clearly. Mucous membranes are pink and moist with good refill time. No bruising in the ventral abdomen and no suggestion of a fluid wave or pain pain on palpation.
(Now the best part)
PLAN SECTION
NOTES
Animal Control took the dog to a holding facility. A few hours later the owner arrived and claimed the dog.
Awesome!! Now I'm just hoping they took him into a vet to get a full workup. Who knows, maybe the owners will give us a call to let us know he's doing fine. I've already called the lady that hit him and left her a message sharing the good news.
All in all, some good feelings came out of both situations.
Unfortunately, Sarah was on a run Sunday morning and heard a THUMP followed by a yowlp yowlp yowlp and turned around to see yet another lab rolling on the pavement in front of a car. Fortunately he got up and ran into an open hotel door, "yowlping" all the way. I guess he looked fine...just a little scared.
Lucca's going to be under a tight leash for a while, I can tell you that.
We were just about to the Pleasant View exit when we started noticing a lot of semi-tire pieces on the road ("gators" as the wide load escorts seem to call them.) So of course, everyone in front of us was slowing down and swerving. That's when we noticed one of the gators trying to stand up, then fall, stand up, then fall. SHIT it was a chocolate lab that's been hit! Sarah jumped on the brakes and got out to see what she could do. By this time, we notice another pointer mix that was milling around his buddy...and wouldn't respond to calling or whistles. I tried to get him off the road as Sarah went to assess the injured dog. There were a lot of people backed up by this time (think noon on a Saturday between Coeur d'Alene and Spokane in July.) Folks were generally being pretty good and we had a decent number of folks trying to herd the pointer as well as direct traffic to one lane. Well, the pointer just kept running west down the middle of the interstate so I left the chase and decided to keep an eye on traffic instead....that's when I noticed my angel wrapping the labrador in a blanket and begin carrying him toward the car.
We popped the Subaru's hatch and put the poor guy in there on Lucca's bed. Sarah mentioned some road rash on both his hips, a hurt leg, and the fact that he kinda crapped himself. (I would have done the same thing if I was hit by a car.) But he ended up laying there, then standing up and looking out the window....doing good and not whining which I thought was amazing. The gal that hit him was still milling around her car looking at us, so I went to talk with her. I told her we were headed to the Post Falls Animal Hospital and that we'd call her with any updates. She handed me her husband's card and said her number was on the back. (Of course, the husband owned "Touchdown Tuxedos" in Post Falls....what are the chances of THAT?)
Well, we ended up at the Animal Hospital and this guy didn't want to get out of the car....looking pretty scared to be out in the open again. But, despite the danger of getting bit, Sarah scooped him up and hauled him inside. The folks there checked his heartbeat and weighed him, checked for a micro-chip, got our information...then animal control came in. Sarah was asking if they were going to do x-rays or anything and they said no..."unless you want to incur the charges. Otherwise, we have to hand him over to animal control." Hmmm, odd...what happened to just doing the right thing? ie) At least cleaning him up. After confirming that he had more than three days for the owner to find him before they put him down, we left...promising to follow up on Monday. Unfortunately the animal control guy said they could only put him up and give him some pain pills. Can you imagine? A possible broken leg and all you get is some aspirin?
So obviously we were jacked up and rather disappointed in how things were playing out, but we made our way back toward Cabelas. There we bought everything mentioned and I had to pick up a nice North Face jacket under the "impulse buy" influence....it was a spendy coat. But, I now had seven shirts that didn't have holes in them, something that has been driving Sarah nuts. When the fella rang me up, the total seemed pretty darn reasonable for Cabelas...but I just figured those other $25 shirts were on discount. In the car, Sarah mentioned that the tiller's meter hadn't moved after the first shirt was scanned. I checked the receipt and found out that I had just acquired six shirts for the price of one! Hmmm.
I weighed the choice before me and realized this was a pretty significant decision. Was this our payment for helping the lab out? Or was this just another test of our morals?
What would YOU do?
I went back inside. I HAD to. I found the first available teller as the dude that helped us wasn't around, and as it turns out, she was a manager of sorts. So she called him up and I told her I didn't want to get anyone in trouble, I just needed to be honest for my own well-being. She kinda reamed him and he held up his hands and laughingly said, "That's the last time I touch one of those things." (So it obviously wasn't his normal job there...just trying to step in and help out.) She told him, "Well, I'm going to give him a discount for being honest." My hopes rose, until she said she was going to give me 10% off. Bummer, but at least it kept my remaining total below $100!
So things all worked out fairly well, but we were still pretty concerned about the dog. When we got home I called the gal up and told her what happened and she mentioned that she was going to go down to animal control and check on him. That was pretty nice (and darn responsible...a lot of people wouldn't give a shit.) I told her Sarah's plan for Monday and we said our goodbye's.
This morning I got a bizarre text from Sarah asking for my work's fax number....so I gave it to her. Then she wrote, "I just sent you a fax. :)" I ran downstairs and found this:
SUBJECTIVE SECTION
A neutered male chocolate Labrador was struck by a car and presented to the emergency clinic by good Samaritans Tom Elliott and Sarah Kaufman (employee of Mountain View Veterinary Clinic.) ...Animal Control took responsibility of the dog after arrival.
OBJECTIVE SECTION
At presentation the chocolate lab is in good weight with abrasions to both hind limbs, worse on the right. The right hock folds and seems rather unstable suggesting tendon rupture. He can bear weight on it and is moderately painful to palpation of the limb. Heart and lungs auscult clearly. Mucous membranes are pink and moist with good refill time. No bruising in the ventral abdomen and no suggestion of a fluid wave or pain pain on palpation.
(Now the best part)
PLAN SECTION
NOTES
Animal Control took the dog to a holding facility. A few hours later the owner arrived and claimed the dog.
Awesome!! Now I'm just hoping they took him into a vet to get a full workup. Who knows, maybe the owners will give us a call to let us know he's doing fine. I've already called the lady that hit him and left her a message sharing the good news.
All in all, some good feelings came out of both situations.
Unfortunately, Sarah was on a run Sunday morning and heard a THUMP followed by a yowlp yowlp yowlp and turned around to see yet another lab rolling on the pavement in front of a car. Fortunately he got up and ran into an open hotel door, "yowlping" all the way. I guess he looked fine...just a little scared.
Lucca's going to be under a tight leash for a while, I can tell you that.
posted by geotracker12 at 1:07 PM
2 Comments:
What a ROLLERCOASTER of events - I was emotionally all over the place after reading that. COOL story though. You two are some really great people.
Thanks for the compliment Nicole. I totally understand being emotionally all over the place! Sounds like you know how WE felt!
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