A friend of my brother Randy does bronze sculptures, some of which relate to police or firemen. With this in mind we checked out the sculpture in front of the Anoka Police station and it was indeed done by him. Also we looked at the statue of King, Anoka first police dog and a hero also. This statue os located 1 1/2 block from Lily's house at "King's Park", named after this dog. It too was made by this man. What a small world.
I shooed Sally Cat out of the herb garden where she had been digging and she ran off looking back over her shoulder toward me when Lily who had been sitting just a few steps away ran toward the cat blocking her. Sally, not looking where she was going, ran into Lily's side and bounced off her and up into the air. When Sally landed on her feet she looked around suprised like "what happened?" Non the worse for wear. I laughed so hard.
This is the first time I've been able to BLOG about Lily's traumatic experience because it has been too painful to recall. But it is such an important event in her life I need to record it.
Sunday,April 25 started out a beautiful, sunny, spring day. Jim had left for work and about 2:30 pm Lily and I went for a walk (Lily was wearing a collar and a harness with a leash) down to Rocketship Park. Lily enjoyed herself doing her romping and sniffy around. We even stopped and watched a softball game for awhile. When our walk continued we left through the east side of the park heading to Green Ave where we turned R heading to the park on Park St. We were walking on the E side of the street when a parked car blocked our way so we crossed the street and walked along the W side heading S when an unleashed big brown dog ran out from a yard were were passing and he grabbed Lily by the L side of her neck and suddenly another big white dog can running from around the corner of the same house and grabbed Lily also in the neck and neither one would let go. Lily's back came to to the belly of these dogs. Lily was yipping and crying and I was hollering but I wouldn't let go of her harness. They tried to shake her and pull her away. I was hollering for help. A man stopped his truck and grabbed one of the dogs and another man (the owner John) grabbed the other dog and both were trying to pull the dogs off Lily. Cars stopped and neighbors came out onto the street. I don't know how long it lasted but it seemed an eternity and a lot of people had gathered on the street. It was the most horrible, brutal thing I ever encountered and I couldn"t stop recalling it for days after and I still can recall every vivid moment. Lily weighs 25# and the 2 attacking dogs were over double her size. Finally they got the dogs off and I picked up Lily. She was so scared, crying. She was all bloody. The owner and his friend took us in a truck to the Emergency vet in Coon Rapids running some red lights. Lily did not have any trouble breathing. When we got to the vet the assistant took one look and took her right to the back. Someone asked if I was hurt because my cheek, neck, arms bloody, but it was all Lily's. Someone had given me a towel when we were getting into the truck and is was blood soaked by the time we got to the clinic. After some time I was told she lost a lot of blood and weren't sure if she would live. They gave her IV fluids, artificial blood replacement,sedated her and stopped the bleeders. Eventually she was given anesthesia and had surgery to close up the wounds. The vet said she wasn't out of the woods yet and needed to keep her overnight. They let me see her after she woke up but only from a distance so she couldn't see me. They did not want her to get excited. Nothing more to be done at this time so I went home by way of the police dept to make a report. The police said there were already several reports from neighbors.
About 10 pm I called the ER clinic to check on Lily and was told she was going good and could go home. Jim and I immediately went to pick her up. When she came walking out from the back she looked so happy to see us. I was overjoyed-she was alive she was even walking. When I examined her wounds I was amazed at the extent of the lacerations. Her neck, L shoulder, L ear, back to top of head were shaven. she had staples in a lac about 9 or 10 inches long from R ear across her head, down her neck to front of L shoulder. Sutures, drains, staples to other wounds on L neck and L anterior shoulder. Sutures to tattered and ripped L ear. She was a bloody mess with 3 drains draining. But she was my sweet, precious bloody mess. She is one tough canine. Jim named her Franken-beagle-stein. She looked liked Frankenstein with all the staples and the drains coming out of her neck wounds like electrodes. Jim took the photos you see on this web site on sunday when she came home.She was on pain pills for 5 days and antibiotics for 2 1/2 weeks. She had over 100 staples and stitches, 90 some in just the long neck wound. Lily was low key for about 24 hours, not moving much but did eat some and went outside to do her duty. Very slow moving. Sally cat kept her company but seemed aware that Lily was healing and needed to be left alone. But Sally did take over sleeping and lounging on Lily's pad during this time. On the 2nd day after surg she went back in and had to have a 2 inch area on back of neck restapled. She was a good patient and let the vet do it without sedation or anything. "Very cooperative". She let me give her twice daily wound care. All in all she did well- drains, staples, sutures removed in good time. No complications. She is as good as new. Hair still growing back but she looks fine, even her tattered ear. She also had the nickname "Miss Staples".
Yesterday, Lily spent most of the evening out back with us while I computed, my mom read and Sally ran off into the woods. I took quite a few cool pictures of Lily lounging on her bed out on the deck. These are the first pictures I've taken of Lily since the night she got home from the emergency room. She is now fully recovered with a few scars. Lily is the best.
Sally showed up once in a while to get her picture taken but I didn't get the picture of her climbing the ladder.