Thanks to those who helped injured dog

On Nov. 8, 2012, my son and his fiance were on their way to Yuma to live from Kentucky. They got as far as Dateland when they started losing rubber from a tire and had to stop to change the tire.

As my son got out of the vehicle to get the spare, his fiance got out of the van and their little Chiweenie dog jumped out and ran into the highway. She was nicked by a Fry’s semi-truck and thrown sideways, then a car ran right over her. The truck driver pulled over and stopped but the car never did. The driver of the truck even took the kids’ phone number and called several times to ask the condition of the dog. The car, however, has attempted no contact. You cannot tell me that the driver of the car did not know it ran over something, especially knowing the semi-truck in front of them stopped. This dog probably weighed 13-14 pounds.

Three Border Patrol vehicles stopped to help the kids. At first my son thought his dog was dead so he moved her to the side of the road to avoid it being run over again. His fiance ran immediately to the dog, only to find Sandy was still alive, just in shock.

The Border Patrol offered to take the dog to Wellton and call a vet to come get the dog, but the kids had to sign the dog over. During all this, my son called us and we were immediately on our way out there, about 55 miles away. We told the Border Patrol we would bring the dog into the vet hospital. They told us to use our flashers and go.

There are not enough words to say thanks to Dr. Wright and his staff at Foothills Animal Hospital for their extreme aptness in their immediate action in attending to this dog. One girl did paperwork, two other girls took the dog. In fact, one lady was getting in her truck to go home but came right back to help us. Dr. Wright took X-rays.

At first thought, Dr. Wright said Sandy would have to go to a surgeon because she had too many fractures for him to fix. I said the kids didn’t have that kind of money and no jobs yet so my son would have to put Sandy to sleep. Dr. Wright explained to me that he had other actions he could take and she should be all right, but probably would have a limp. We said do what you can. He operated on Nov. 9 and Sandy came home the following day. However, when we went to pick her up, Dr. Wright explained to us that Sandy had nerve damage to her left rear hip and leg. He said he may have to amputate it. With Dr. Wright’s encouragement to massage and exercise the leg, Sandy is all healed up and is even using the nerve-damaged leg pretty well.

Many, many thanks to the Border Patrol men and we don’t have names, but you know who you are, and the Fry’s semi-truck driver who cared to stop and help the kids. Because of all of you, and the love between a man and his dog, Sandy is alive and living a normal life.

God bless you all and you can be proud for the work you did and continue to do. Fry’s can be proud of your driver, sorry no name. To the person in the car, you know who you are, I hope you never have to go through what we did.

BERTHA SCHLICK

Foothills