Rosie: The Dog Determined To Live (Part I)

On Saturday, March 10th, I was driving home after a run when, about 10 miles from my house, out on Highway 220, I saw a small dog in the median, tail wagging. It had already made it across two lanes of traffic and had two more to go. 

"No, no, no, stay put," I mentally willed the dog as I looked for a place to turn around. 

Too late. I looked in my rear view mirror and watched the dog dart into traffic. She was hit by a van doing about 60 mph and did a rolling flip-flop underneath it, coming to rest to in the middle of the road.

The vans and the cars around the van kept driving. 

I floored it back to the spot where the dog lay unmoving in the road. Traffic continued on until one kind soul stopped his car just behind the dog so I could dart out and grab her and carry her to the side of the road. 

I was pretty sure she was dead. Her eyes were open and unblinking, blood oozed out of one ear and it looked like she may have bitten her tongue or was bleeding from her mouth. I mainly felt grateful. I didn't want her to have to suffer. Then the dog gave a moaning, whining wheeze. 

Oh no. No! I didn't know what to do. I tried to pick the dog up to get her to my car but she whined and cried out so much I was terrified she had internal injuries or a broken back and I was hurting her by trying to move her. That's when a man--God bless him--pulled off to the side and jogged over to me. I was crying by this time, trying to explain through hiccupping sobs what had happened. I finally managed to get out that if he could help me get the dog in my car, I'd take her to my vet. 

We made a "stretcher" out of a towel in my car and placed her in the back seat. It was two minutes until 12, my vet closed at noon and I was about 6 minutes away. I called and--again, sobbing--said I had this dog they just had to help. The Madison Vet Clinic are GOOD PEOPLE and they stayed open for me. I raced in with the dog and have never felt such relief as when I placed the dog in the arms of the veterinarian. My part was over. 

Or so I thought. 

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I'm going to pause my part of the story here and backtrack two weeks. That's when this dog--who I would come to find out is named "Rosie-- was rescued the first time. The video below is of two dogs seemingly abandoned underneath a bridge on the NC/VA state line near Eden, NC.  This is a quick edit of the video and pictures from the rescue. They were taken to a vet and found to be healthy. One is a puppy, only several months old. The other is her mother--Rosie--maybe 3 years old.

This was Rosie's first chance at life. Me bringing her into my vet was the second. Wait until you see how many more chances at life this little dog was given--and grabbed.