Very Unhappy Mother's Day :(

[tripperfunster]

Two of my dogs were hit by a car today.

We live in the country, near a highway, and as much as my dogs like to chase cars when they drive down our dirt road (a behaviour which we discourage, of course) they have never really paid much attention to the highway. There is an access road, then a big ditch, then the highway.

Well, today, me and the kids were noodling around in the yard, raking leaves and getting the toroise enclosure ready, when a car pulled up in our driveway. A woman got out and asked if we had dogs, because they had hit them.

She really hesitated before she said anything (I'm sure she was horrified, poor thing) and when she did speak, it was so quiet that I barely heard it. When I finally gathered that TWO of my three dogs were hit and probably dead, I sprinted to the highway and sure enough, two little brown lumps were laying there. (still on the road, no less).

I ran over, and Spencer lifted his head up and looked at me, blood coming out of his mouth, and I wasn't sure if I should be relieved or mortified that he was alive, but suffering. Harley looked dead, but was sort of barely breathing, so I dragged them both off the road, to the side of the ditch, then asked the man and woman (who had come over to where I was) to make sure they didn't move and to keep my kids off the highway while I went to grab the truck.

I pulled up, put the dogs in, put the kids in and we raced to the closest vet. Somewhere in the hubub I forgot my purse, and I DIDN'T HAVE MY CELLPHONE TO CALL THE VET to see if they were there! Urg! It was like a fuckin' nightmare when stoopid things like that go wrong.

Of course the vet WASN'T THERE (it's a country vet, and he lives beside the clinic, but I guess he was out) so of course, we wasted valuable time driving to the wrong place, THEN I FOUND MY PURSE (which I must have grabbed at some point, but I don't remember) so I called the next closest vet and miracle of miracles, they were open.

They rushed both dogs in, and sadly, Harley was pretty much DOA. I could tell that, and had warned the kids that it didn't look good for him. Lucky for us, Spencer (so far) seems okay. He's pretty bruised up, and had a couple of lacerations that they sewed up, but so far he's still alive, and we are eternally grateful for that.

He's not out of the woods yet, depending on internal injuries, but the vet let us take him home tonight (there's no one at the clinic all night, so he's better off at our house) but we have to take him back in the morning for a check up.

Harrison (my seven year old) is pretty devestated. Quincey goes between not giving a shit, and being pretty damn sad. I assume he is more the latter, but is having trouble expressing it. We've lost dogs before, but not for a couple of years, and that's a long time when you're a kid. Plus, those dogs were old, it wasn't a tramatic dash to the animal hospital on those occasions.

We buried Harley out by the pond, beside a big willow tree. Harry wrote the sweetest note for him, basically saying that we loved him and we'll miss him, and thank you for saving Spencer's life. (we had a theory that Harley took the brunt of the car, so that Spencer wouldn't get hurt as much.) I think it helped the kids to think that Harley didn't die in vain.

Any hoo. Sorry to bum everyone out. Everyone cross your fingers for Spencer!

Comments

[r-grayjoy.livejournal.com]

Oh man, that's so horrible. I've lost beloved pets that way (although it's been a long while, thankfully) and I know how sudden and traumatic it is. I hope Spencer will be all right...