Get a Leash- A rant, and a terrible accident.

I am warning you now; this will be a bit of a rant.

Monday evening Nate and I were sitting on the couch being lazy. Nate heard a commotion outside and looked out the window to find that a dog had been hit by a car. We live next to a busy 4 lane road where people drive way too fast, and this is the second dog we know of that has been hit on this particular road, the first one fared much better.

There was a crowd of people standing around the injured dog, so we ran out to see if we could help. It was still able to hop around, but it was apparent that its back leg was severely injured. It was also bleeding, but I couldn’t tell from where. Naturally the dog was in quite a bit of shock, so it was lashing out at anyone that tried to get close to it, almost biting several people. Finally, between 6 or 7 of us, we were able to block traffic, and herd it out of the road and to the grass in front of our house.

I should mention now that the owners of the dog were not present. There were two girls, probably about the same age as Nate and I that were watching the dog for their friends. It appeared that they had been playing ball with the dog across the street in the grassy divider. I had seen this dog a few times, her name was Harley, and she and Dalton decided when we encountered them on walks that they would do the leash dance, and get tangled up because they wanted to play so bad. She was probably about 7-9 months old.

The people watching the dog apparently didn’t have a leash for her, so I ran inside to get that and a towel so we could cover her. We were finally able to get her to lie down, so we wrapped her head in the towel so she couldn’t bite, and slid another blanket under her so we could lift her in someone’s car and get her to the emergency vet. Nate as well as another person that was helping, who happened to be studying to be a vet, helped get the dog in the car,  and hold her steady on the drive to the vet. The two girls watching the dog, for obvious reasons were hysterical; one of them was crying and yelling the other was silent and frozen. I can’t imagine the pain that they are going through; having this happen under anyone’s watch would be an awful and traumatizing experience.

That being said, I am so mad that this happened, and I feel like it was preventable. First of all, there is an enclosed area not 1 block from where they were playing ball with this dog, which would have been safer than where they were. And second, why wasn’t this dog on a leash?! Seriously? They didn’t even have one to get the dog from the house to where they were playing? As a dog owner, and especially a husky owner, a leash is something that you cannot go without. Sometimes it is the only thing that keeps Dalton around, and I would never want to risk something as terrible as this, for the sake of letting my dog have a bit of “freedom.” We have put too much love, energy, and time into him to not take that extra step. And really, what is the big deal with people wanting their dogs to be “off leash.”  It takes 1 second for the dog to get distracted, and have something awful like this happen.

Nate called the animal hospital last night, and from what little information they could give us, the prognosis was not good. She was still alive, but it didn’t sound like she would recover. As I said before, I truly feel for the girls who were watching the dog, the owners, and the people that accidentally hit the dog, what a terrible burden to have on your shoulders. Honestly though, I think a little thought could have prevented this whole situation, whether it was playing ball in the park instead of next to the road, or having a leash, the situation was preventable.

I am done ranting now, but I seriously hope those that read this think twice before letting your dog roam without a leash. It really isn’t worth it.