|
|
|
| Rudy the day after surgery to repair his broken leg. |
From Phil & Deirdre
On 1/29/08 at approx. 1pm, the mail delivery person
came to our business. This was earlier then normal and I was at lunch while Phil was out playing
golf.
We take our dogs to work with us Monday through Friday and they
keep us company in the front office. When the postal worker comes in, she always feeds the dogs one biscuit each. On this
fateful day, after she gave each dog a biscuit, she opened the door and went out but this time all three of our dogs followed
her out the door! This had NEVER happened before.
An employee brought Dutch and
Cappy back but Rudy wouldn't come to her. He just kept on going! Another employee ran after him, (which we
know is the wrong thing to do). Rudy was worried, and may have questioned. "Why is this person chasing after me and screaming?"
So of course, he started to go faster and the employee couldn't keep up with him. She last saw him turning south along
the access road of a major highway called Central Expressway.
The rest of the story is reconstructed based
on witnesses. We believe that Rudy kept on traveling south until he got to Mockingbird Lane, a major eight lane artery
in Dallas. We believe that Rudy may have crossed Mockingbird and was then hit by a car.
On Wednesday night around 10pm, a Good Samaritan saw Rudy in the parking lot of The Palomar Hotel. He got
out of his car and tried to catch Rudy but the now injured dog was so terrified, he just ran away. Luckily the man was
able to follow Rudy and saw him head toward an empty lot behind the hotel. He then lost site of Rudy. It would be days before
we knew about this sighting and his efforts to help Rudy.
In the meantime, Phil and I searched and
put fliers up every day; unfortunately we soon found out that as soon as we put them up, someone was taking them
down. Phil said it was probably the telephone company since we had nailed them to telephone poles.This
was incredibly discouraging to me and I cried every time I saw where a flier had been taken down.
We got a few calls but none were Rudy. We then called Karin and asked for her help. We were tired
and discouraged and sure that some one had found Rudy and was keeping him in their house. Karin
assured us that this was probably not the case but that instead he was roaming. She designed a strategy which included
a public awareness campaign. (We got a call from a dog rescue who had seen the posters designed by Karin and she
told Phil that they were the best posters she'd ever seen!)
Finally the
man who sighted Rudy saw one of the posters Saturday at 10pm when he came out of a movie. He immediately called
Phil's cell phone but we were asleep, exhausted from the mental stress and from putting up the new posters all day.
We didn't hear the message until Sunday morning when we woke up.
We immediately
drove to the area described by the caller and started calling Rudy's name . Off in the distance a pair of ears popped
up from behind a pile of rubble. It was Rudy and as Phil started to walk towards him he became terrified and didn't recognize
him as Karin had said might happen. The hair on the back of Rudy's neck was up , he tucked his tail and started to run away
at full speed but something was very wrong- he was dragging his leg. I called Rudy and while he looked at
me, he didn't come to me. Our other dogs were with us and I calmly but quickly got Cappy out of the car. I said,
"Look Rudy, it's Cappy!" Rudy looked over at Cappy, he slowly and carefully came towards us. By now I was crying
and repeating Rudy's name over and over. He finally came up to Cappy and I collapsed in joy. It had been such an ordeal.
Rudy was obviously injured so we immediately took him
to the Emergency Clinic. He was diagnosed with a broken femur and severe dehydration, (the vet said he was
60% dehydrated). Rudy had surgery on Monday at the Veterinary Specialists Center where they had to put 2 pins in his
busted up leg.
I truly believe that if it wasn't for Karin's
advice and constant reassurance, Phil and I could not have made it through this. I know we wouldn't have Rudy
back with us alive. We are very thankful we made that call.
Phil &
Deirdre Marr
Dallas, TX
|
