Awful Night

About 8:30 this evening we headed to the neighbor's house to water her plants while she is out of town. I told the girls to put Bob in the backyard before we left so he wouldn't try to run out the front door.

Bob was quite unhappy that his family was in the neighbor's yard while he was stuck in our yard, and was doing his best to ram his head through the fence. So we told PS to go back home and let him into the house. A few minutes later, her sisters followed. Just as DH and I were finishing up, TT ran back over to tell us that Bob had gotten out and was taking off down the street. PS and SS had followed, so DH took off running after them. I went to get the car, with SS in tow. (This isn't the first time Bob has taken off, and the best way to catch him is to convince him to take a ride in the car.)

As I reached the end of our block I caught a glimpse of SS standing at the edge of our neighborhood. Which borders a busy two-lane highway with a 55 mph speed limit. When I reached the highway I saw the girls and DH standing on one side screaming. It was hard to see what was going on in the road because it was dusk and the oncoming car headlights put everything into silhouette. My biggest fear at that moment was that one of my children would take off across the highway after the dog. Traffic was too heavy to pull onto the highway, so I just laid on the horn, hoping it would make the other cars slow down and pay attention.

And then the cars in both directions stopped and I saw DH and PS take off across the road. SS was still on the side opposite me. I pulled onto the highway and saw that Bob had been hit. I flipped a u-turn in front of the stopped cars--my top priority was to get SS into the car before she tried to cross the road, or a car came onto the shoulder and hit her. I walked down to where DH and PS were, and I could see that Bob was lying down but moving his head. Lots of other people had stopped and were out of their cars trying to help. (DH said later that some strange lady came over and started yelling at the kids who hit Bob. It wasn't their fault a big black dog came darting into traffic. And PS said that lots of other people were crying.) I yelled across the road that I would bring the car over (it was a few couple hundred feet away on the other side of the highway.)

Meanwhile, someone found a blanket, which was made into a makeshift gurney to carry Bob to the car. He looked to have a broken leg and was bleeding from his mouth. We loaded him into the back and DH called the vet. PS and SS, who had seen everything, were hysterical.

We headed to the vet's office, and she met us within just a few minutes. Bob was very calm in the car, and stood up when DH tried to lift him out of the car. In the vet's office he was panting heavily, but he was standing on his leg and wagging his tail. X-rays showed no breaks or internal injuries. He just has lots of road rash, swelling in one knee, and apparently bit his tongue. The vet sent him home with lots of pain killers and antibiotics.

It is awful seeing Bob hurt and the kids so inconsolable. They are all trying to blame themselves. (And yes, he should be better trained.) SS is sleeping on the couch tonight so that she can stay near him. But the worst of all was the very real fear that one of my kids was going to get killed on that very busy highway. It was like watching a movie in slow motion and there was nothing I could do.

It looks like Bob will be ok. We can clearly see how this situation could have been worse in so many different ways and know that we are lucky it wasn't worse. And we are so grateful to everyone who stopped to help. We wish there was a way to let them know that Bob turned out ok--especially the kids who hit him and got yelled at.