While Cam, Sophia, and I were enjoying ourselves in Colorado, our faithful dog Obi was in the care of some friends here in Sacramento. These friends of ours watched Obi many times before. They had kids that loved playing with him and I’m sure Obi enjoyed the table scraps they gave him despite our protests. They generally took good care of him, and in return we paid them $15 a day. The only problems we’ve had were the dog leashes. Each time, we left Obi with a nice $50 retractable leash. And each time we got him back, the leash returned broken beyond repair. After losing two expensive leashes, we decided to leave him with a cheap one – and even that was destroyed!
Nevertheless, we prefer them over taking Obi to the kennel, which costs $20 per day + tax. Obi also picks up bad habits from the other kennel dogs and we don’t know what horrible thoughts go through his mind while stashed in a cold 4’ X 6’ concrete cage.
This time however, something bad happened. Towards the end of our trip, I got a call from a stranger, asking if I was the owner of a dog named Obi. “Yes,” I replied cautiously, wondering if it was a prank call and at the same time panicking with horrible images of an accident racing through my mind.
“Well, I have your dog,” the lady said. “His leg is badly wounded. “
It turned out Obi managed to escape my friend’s house through a window that was slightly opened. From there, who knew what happened. He had crossed a major road that was 6 lanes wide and ended up some few miles from my friend’s house. The Good Samaritan who found him cleaned up his right front leg, which had a large gaping wound. Thank goodness she found him. And I am so, so, so grateful that 2 years ago, Cam and I decided to get Obi those cute tags engraved with his name and phone number. Without it, Obi would still be lost.
Obi came home with a wrapped up front paw and loads of pain killers and antibiotics. My friends were very sorry of course, and they did pay $300 for the emergency pet hospital. Now, about two weeks and hundreds of dollars in vet bills later, Obi is so much better. It was a challenge getting him to take his pills. A nice mouthful of chicken tenders and bacon sure helped the medicine go down. He also had to wear his cone collar a few times. He kept running into things. It was quite funny.
We still don’t know what happened to Obi that day. Why did he escape? How did he get his wound? The vet speculated that he was hit by a car considering how deep his wound was. I like to think that gallant Obi was sitting contently when he heard a damsel dog in distress. Without a moment to lose, he tore open the window with his powerful jaws and ran to save the day. Maybe the damsel dog was stuck on a manhole, and maybe there was a huge car coming. And maybe Obi hesitated a little before heroically rescuing the damsel dog and pushing her to safety. Maybe he took too long sniffing her before getting himself out of the way. Maybe, just maybe.
I still have to pay my friend the pet-sitting fee, in addition to the vet bill. This is turning out to be a very expensive deal. In retrospect, maybe the kennel would not be such a bad idea for next time.
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