Black Lab, Freeway, City Bus, Impact

[alf]

I was taking my 9 year old son to his soccer team lunch this afternoon heading east on I-90 when a sea of brake lights greet me. I soon noticed that there is a black lab running on the shoulder of a 4 lane freeway causing the slow down.

I pull off to the shoulder about 100 feet ahead of the lab since I was already in the right lane, got out, stooped down and motioned the dog to come. By now another car has pulled over the shoulder. Dog sees my car in front of her and another behind and decides to take a left smack into on coming traffic. Barely makes it past the first lane.

City bus could not slow down in time on the second lane and smacks the dog on the torso sending it hurling in the air and landing about 50 feet in front of my car on the shoulder. It lays motoinless on the ground, I rush to it, picked it up and put her in my car. Noticing the smell of urine and some blood.

Drove to the nearest vet. The whole time, my son is in the back seat comforting the dog who seems to be breathing a little bit heavily and gagging a little bit. I wonder if I did not stop if she might have turned right and back into the woods and to safety.

Got to the Petsmart vet, carry the dog in and explained the situation. Attending vet does a quick check while nurse scans for a chip. No ID on the dog whatsoever and surprisingly no broken bones and just a couple of scratches. Petsmart tells me to take her to the animal hospital across the street, I do so repeat explination and after another inspection and a clean bill of 'visual' health, left her there. She gave me a grave look with her deep brown eyes as i turned away.

Son was late to his soccer lunch but the coach saw me pull over and pick up the dog so they kinda knew I got a little bit side tracked on the way.

Will check in on her tomorrow before I head off to Hawaii to see if she did OK. Pretty dog, quite young too, a little bit skinny but looks healthy. If she makes it through this, she is one lucky pooch. Hope she does.

[Laneco]

Thank you for being a decent human being - for stopping (if safely possible).

Rather remarkable that the dog got hit by a bus and seems ok!

angela

[HardDrive]

Originally Posted by Laneco

Rather remarkable that the dog got hit by a bus and seems ok!

Not really. Here in Seattle our busses are made out of hemp (only organic hemp, cultivated by free range, free trade, unionized workers.)

[9dreizig]

Good job!!! I remember a couple of years ago , my step dad was driving and a dog ran right into the side of our car.. Got up, shook it off and walked away like nothing happened..
Nothing shakes me up more than a dog getting hit...( cats don't seem to bother me - go figure)

[WolfeMacleod]

If the dog lives, claim the dog. Pay the vet, love the dog for years.
It was fate.

I did, sort of... that's how we wound up with one of our cats...although she wasn't hit by a car.
We wanted her when she was very young. By the time she was (almost) old enough to claim, she was almost dead from starvation/dehydration from the owners. When we learned, we claimed and immediately took to the vet.

I wouldn't giver her up for nothin'.

[tabs]

Alf you A #1 in my book...now go back and get that dog...it was meant to be.

[azasadny]

Alf,
One of the ways I "judge" a person's character is by the way they treat animals. You are a good man!

[Jeff Higgins]

Bravo, Alf. I hope she makes it.

[island911]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

Not really. Here in Seattle our busses are made out of hemp (only organic hemp, cultivated by free range, free trade, unionized workers.)

Don't sell us short ... that is Fair-Trade Shade-Grown organic hemp buses. ...all driven by Sally Struthers.

Originally Posted by tabs

Alf you A #1 in my book...now go back and get that dog...it was meant to be.

Didn't you get the part where he says he's going to Hawaii?

[Tobra]

lot of dogs with irresponsible owners, good job

[Joeaksa]

Good job and hope the pup is ok...

[Neilk]

My parents walk our dogs around the neighborhood at night. Once, our then 9 year old arthritic lab, got loose and ran out of the gate before their walk. He was hit by a car (who drove away) and apparently flew 10 feet through the air. They were sure he was dead, but he got up as if nothing had happened. Amazingly, for the next 6 months, his arthritis symptoms had completely subsided.

[alf]

I am not too happy...we called the vet twice while in Hawaii to check up on the dog, both times they say that she is OK and have not released them to animal control yet, but will give us a case number to follow up on when they do.

Got back yesterday and called today to get the case number, now they say she was picked up and they have no case number for us to follow up on. WTF? My wife called all the area animal control folks to see if they picked her up to no avail.

Ironic if she survives the bus but not animal control.

[pwd72s]

I'd suggest physically going to the shelters...and hope you're not too late...

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by alf

Got back yesterday and called today to get the case number, now they say she was picked up and they have no case number for us to follow up on. WTF? My wife called all the area animal control folks to see if they picked her up to no avail.

Ironic if she survives the bus but not animal control.

Strange that none of the local shelters have not picked up a black lab... perhaps someone at the vet took a shine to the dog and took it home?

Another possibility is that someone at the shelter may have taken the dog for themselves...

It happened to me, I had a very large, very friendly cat that was extremely intelligent and charismatic. One day he disappeared, I put up reward signs and checked the shelter.
My neighbors dog gets out of the yard and is picked up by animal control, they go down to the shelter to pick up the dog and come back to tell me "your cat is at the shelter". I am like "What? I was there yesterday" and the tell me "oh no, he's not in a cage they adopted him, he sleeps in one of the lockers, we told them that he was you cat but they wouldn't release him to us, said if you want him you will have to come down and claim him."

His name was Fozzy... they named him Zeke... miss that cat.

Anyway good job on saving the dog, you may want to be a little more assertive questioning the vet as to what they did with the dog.

[Jeff Higgins]

Surely, the vet must know which animal control picked her up. They must deal with the same one all the time. That, and the animal control shelters must keep records of where they get their dogs. This just sounds weird. It would be very tragic if she gets lost in the shuffle. There can't be that many shelters in the area of the vet. You said I-90, and the Petsmart vet. Was this near Eastgate? On Mercer Island? The only shelter I know of in that area is the Humane Society near the I-90 / 405 interchange. Might be worth stopping by.

[scottmandue]

Yeah, I would go down to the shelter and have a look around.

Don't know about the shelters in your area but ours uses volunteers... and God bless them for the good work they do... but some of them, uh, aren't the brightest bulbs on the tree if you know what I mean.

[9dreizig]

what ever happened to the pooch ?

[alf]

Originally Posted by 9dreizig

what ever happened to the pooch ?

Sadly, we never found her.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by alf

Sadly, we never found her.

Damn! I was hoping for a happy ending...