Yesterday, before breakfast, while waiting for me to fix their food. I have three Aussies: mama dog, papa dog and the baby (almost three). Mama went downstairs with my son. He lives in the basement apartment with a patio. The outer stairs has an area that’s fenced but needs some work. Mama dog, Ebony, escapes through that at times to run with the wolves. She races up the street and generally returns home before we can locate her. This morning, my son called to let me know she’d escaped again and he was on the hunt. I quickly put on my shoes and raced out the door and, half way to the intersection, I heard a horrifying sound - a car as it struck a body. When Ebony saw my son she bolted out between two cars into the street to greet him. The driver didn’t even try to stop, but hit then ran over her and kept on going up the hill without even slowing down. What if it had been a child? Good grief! She appeared to be DOA, but as soon as my son lifted her up to move her onto the sidewalk, she began to breathe. I will spare you details because the dog was essentially dead. I ran home for my truck and returned so I could take her to Columbia River Veterinary Specialists, a 24 hour emergency service. Those people were fabulous. My goal was not to save her life because she was too damaged, and by the time I arrived, she had quit breathing. I wanted her taken care of so declined CPR and requested cremation, which they did for a very reasonable fee. Even if the driver had stopped, it would not have made her loss any less traumatic but the anger and the urge to do some serious damage to the asswipe would not have been there. We’re supposed to pray for those who abuse and spitefully misuse us, and I suppose this falls into this category, but it’s going to be a few days or more before I can even think about praying for the person who hit my dog and carelessly drove over her damaged body and left the scene. She was a fun-loving mama dog of almost five years. I bought her when she was 3 months old from a woman in Longview. Ebony had one litter and I still have one of her puppies, Kaida. A lovable little red merle and her papa, Ivory, a red merle. Kaida misses her mama and waits by her food dish every morning for mama dog to show up because they always ate together. They played together and now all she has is gruff papa dog, Ivory, who’s not the same as mama dog. Papa dog seems to be taking it well in hand but the puppy is not. She lays by the gate waiting during the day. One day at a time, she will eventually adjust to mama being gone. If I hadn’t been so upset, I would have let her be with mama dog before I took her to the vet. Then maybe she would better understand. When we had to put another dog down, its partner was able to be with her for a while after death, so he didn’t go through the grieving; he seemed to get over it quickly it seemed. And it could just be the difference in dogs. Well, that’s my story for the week. Thanks to my sister and all my friends who have been so loving and supportive since this happened. I’ve really appreciated it. P.S. I painted a picture of Chardo, my son’s dog. You can see it on my page of paintings. My son asked me to paint one of Ebony and I will do that for him sometime this coming week and post it also on the paintings page. As an aside… When I brought Ebony home as a puppy, my son took her with him on the bus all over Vancouver and Portland - bus and Max. She enjoyed it and I believe that’s where she got the wandering spirit. And I know he blames himself for not fixing the fence in time, but life is what it is and it does no good for us to blame ourselves when bad things happen, or to blame others. However…. Two days later, a neighbor said to me (the person who hit our dog is a Facebook friend of hers) it was my fault for letting the dog out of the yard - as if we did it on purpose. I’m hurt and angry all over again because I miss my mama dog so much. I’m going to stop because that’s not what this blog is supposed to be about, and get back to writing about my books. Speaking of which...
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