On New Years Day, I was walking my yellow English Lab, Max with my friend Lori and her chocolate Lab, Bosco at Borderland State Park in Easton/Sharon. As we were walking down the path Bosco and Max were romping in the snow and I heard a blood-curdling yelp. Max was on the ground screaming. Seeing blood in the snow I frantically looked on his body and found a hole under his arm. A rusty metal rod hidden in the snow had speared Max.
I grabbed tissues to hold off the bleeding and put my 90-pound lab on my lap to keep him warm. It was 0 degrees that day. I took off my coat, put Max on it and tried to drag him back to the parking lot. Lori called the Park Rangers’ office and being a holiday no one was there. She then called 911 and was told it’s against department policy to rescue animals. My poor dog could have died because there is no animal rescue unit in our state.
Thankfully my husband was home. He drove his car down the walking path, picked us up and took us to Tufts Veterinary Emergency Center in Walpole. Max was cared for immediately and amazingly none of his vital organs were touched. Lucky for him (and us) he is a barrel-chested English lab with dense muscle tissue, which saved his life. Had the rusty spear impaled a child or bonier dog they would not have survived.
After three hours of surgery and five days of wonderful care at Tufts, Max should be fine. His recuperation time will be about a month.
I share this unhappy New Year’s story with you to alert you to the hidden dangers in the snow. Perhaps the recession has made it impossible for the state and our communities to keep up with all safety measures and basic clean up at our public parks so we all have to be more aware for the sake of our children and pets. Also, the state of MA needs to set up some kind of emergency animal rescue, because something like this will happen again.
I have started this blog so that we can post information to help us help each other and maybe we can come up with a solution together.