A puppy named Mr. Lucky

This is a story that begins as a tragedy, then starts looking up, and continues (hopefully) long after this small part of the story ends.
WARNING! The first few photographs and video's show an injured puppy. After that, they show his recovery.

I'm sorry, there is no sound. The camera I had wasn't equipped with that capability.

It was a Sunday morning and my wife, with her cup of coffee in hand, walked across the street to our neighbor's house (Happened every day) to get the daily (gossip) news. Our neighbor was at least 80 years old, and knew everything going on around town. Normally my wife would be gone for about an hour, give or take 15 minutes.

Not this time. She wasn't gone for 2 minutes when she came running back, yelling at me to find a box and get one of our dog's blankets. There was a puppy that had been hit by a car, and we needed to get it to a Vet. When we got back to our neighbors house, I saw this little grey puppy on the porch, laying on its left side. On its right side was a hind leg so badly swollen that it was sticking almost straight up in the air. The pup was whimpering until we tried to move him. Then he howled so loud in pain that other dogs in the neighborhood began howling too.

Once we got the puppy wrapped in the blanket & into the box, he settled down & stopped howling. Then, as gentley as we could, we moved the box to the back seat in the car. My wife called the Vet that we use in Lake Charles. Dr. Stark said he would meet us at the clinic.

Dr. Stark was waiting for us when we got there. He looked the puppy over, then took him to one of the back rooms. He came back a little while later. He told us he gave the puppy a setative & antibiotics. He said he couldn't do anything that day due to the swelling. He said the puppy was a Weimaraner, & its leg was broken above the knee. It also had its pelvis split. We would have to leave the puppy there for a few days.

When we got home that evening, we went back to the neighbors house to get the details on how the puppy got to her porch.

She said that, as her son & daughter in law were getting ready for work, they kept hearing a sound like a baby crying. So they went out to see what it was. They found 3 puppies on the road. 2 of the puppies were dead, & only 1 was still alive, so they carried it back to their house. They told us they knew we liked to sleep late, (my wife was an insomniac) & they were late for work, or they would have brought the pup to us. They knew we would do what we could to help the pup. My wife told them (very sternly) they should have brought the pup straight to us & wake us if we were asleep. After awhile, & my wife had cooled down, they asked if we had named the pup yet, My wife said not yet, so they ask if we could name the pup 'Mr. Lucky'.

A couple of days later, Dr. Stark called us & said we could pick the pup up anytime. He said he couldn't do anything else until it was time to remove the stitches, so we could take him home until then.

When we got to the clinic, we told Dr. Stark about the other pups getting ran over, he stopped us, & said, "This puppy's injuries arn't consistent with being hit by a car. It's injuries are consistent with being thrown out of a moving car". This went threw us like knives! It was no longer an accident. Someone intentionally tried to kill these puppies! Why would anyone do this? I'll get back to this a little later.

Dr. Stark told us to try to keep Mr. Lucky as inactive as we could for the first few days to give the bones a chance to heal a little, then we could let him walk a little to exercise the muscles. But don't let him run or play until his stitches were removed.

When we got Mr. Lucky home, we broke out an old babies playpen, cleaned it up, & put him in. During the days we kept him in the den with us. At bed time, we would move the whole rig to our bedroom. We lined the pen with piddle pads, so he wouldn't have to move in order to go. After about three days, we would take him out to the patio for a little while. This worked well for about a week when I noticed a bulge on his side. When I pressed the bulge, it moved like a sack of water. We took Mr. Lucky back to the Vet. Dr. Stark said Mr. Lucky was OK & it was just a buildup of fluids & he would have to put in a tube to drain the fluids. He also wanted to keep Mr. Lucky for a couple of weeks & put him in water therapy to help build up strength & agility without having to put weight on the legs.

When we got home, We made a few donation jars, with Mr.Lucky's blue eyes photo & a description of what had happened to him, along with our phone number. We ask around town if anyone knew who owned the puppies, but nobody knew anything. My wife called the local news paper, & ask if she could submit a coulomb, & they allowed it. In fact, they didn't change a word. The closest we got to finding who had killed the puppies was when someone had written on one of the jars, "That's a lie those dogs were hit by a car!". But no one had seen who had written it.

A week after leaving Mr. Lucky at the clinic, Dr. Stark called & said we could pick up Mr. Lucky. He said The stitches, & drain tube were out, & he was doing great. We ask about the water theropy, & he said "Mr. Lucky was growing so fast that he had out grown the tank. His paws were on the bottom, & he was just standing in the water". He was still limping, but he was using the leg.

I probably should have mentioned this a little sooner, but my wife & I already had a few animals when we got Mr. Lucky. At that time we had one Greyhound, two Chihuahuas, two cats, two Finches & several fish. You will see some of them in the photo's & video's. But one of the Chihuahuas (Paddy) became great friends with Mr. Lucky, & did most of Mr. Lucky's phisical rehabilitation, in the form of play. And Paddy loves to play hard. She shows no mercy, or fear.
Even when Mr. Lucky grew to three times Paddy's height, she would take him down! But then, Mr. Lucky was still just a puppy. A very large puppy, but a puppy just the same.

This brings me to the biggest heartache. Mr. Lucky was growing so fast, & eating so much that we couldn't afford to keep him. He was eating more than the rest of our pets put together. We were both disabled & living on a fixed income. What savings we had, went to paying the Vet & then we had to have a yard sale to help pay the rest of the bills. While we were having the yard sale, a nice looking couple with two (well manered) children saw Mr. Lucky & ask about him & if he was for sale. We told them about Lucky's past & his injuries. They said they lived out in the country & had many acres for him & their kids to play on, & Lucky was still young enough to be trained as a hunting dog.

My wife & I had a little talk & decided that if this family was willing to pay for Mr. Lucky, they would probably take good care of him. Also, Lucky was already playing & bonding with their kids. So, with much heartache, we decided to let the family have Lucky, free of charge.

I said I would get back to this.

The note on the jar said "Those dogs were hit by a car". That doesn't make sense! Hitting one puppy? I can see that as a accident. Hitting two? OK, maybe. Hitting all three? They would have to be chasing the pup's, trying to hit them!

Then the Dr. said the damage wasn't consistent with being hit by a car. I had to think on that for a while. I should have ask the Dr. if he would explain that, but I wasn't thinking clearly at the time. The difference would be how the bones were broken. If the bones were crushed, that would happen if the pup was hit or ran over. But in this case, the bones were pretty much clean breaks. This would suggest the puppy's hit the road, hard. It would also explain how all three puppy's were injured. I would also suggest it was done from a pickup truck. It would be easy to toss the puppy's from the bed.

I still have no idea why they would do that. Weimaraners are not cheap dogs. A ten week old pup can sell for $900 dollars.