Death Wish

At some point, we always have to say goodbye to our pets, and fellow pet owners know it's never easy. I was just beginning to get over this feeling of loss from my childhood dog Ginger, using Levi as a pillow to cushion the blow. He was a puppy, which meant he was happy almost all the time, demanded lots of attention, and was overflowing with new life; it was inconceivable to me how close I would come to losing him just in the first couple months I had him. Around the time I was graduating from college, and packing my things up to make the big move down to where my new career was starting, Levi tempted fate.

It was my last week of college, and I was still studying for my last final exam. I decided to take a break to help Kamran clean up the kitchen and take the trash out. I grabbed the full bags and brought them out to the cans, and went back inside to get the rest. Kamran, in the meantime, had been putting new bags in the kitchen bins, and discovered that little Levi was TERRIFIED of empty trash bags. So of course, he was teasing Levi with them. It got so entertaining that he started chasing Levi around the house with the bag. Levi, seeing the open door, and knowing I had been outside recently, made his escape...straight out the door into the street looking for me. I was around the corner next to the driveway loading more trash into the bin, when I heard Kamran yelling "Levi, Levi, Levi!!!" I turned with just enough time to watch Levi stop at the sound of Kamrans voice in the middle of the street, with a car coming right at him going way too fast for the residential street we were on. BOOM. Levi's little body caromed off the front right corner of the cars bumper and landed against the curb, having been tossed about 15 or 20 feet, and he wasn't moving. The car slowed down just enough to yell sorry, before taking off. Had I been more present, I would have taken the license plate number of the car that just hit my dog and ran, but I had more pressing matters at hand to worry about that. I ran out into the street and picked up Levi in my arms, screaming expletives at the top of my lungs (according to my roommates, for me this part was mostly a blur). The only thing I can remember clearly about standing there in the street was that Levi's body was limp, his eyes were rolled back, he was convulsing, and he wasn't breathing. I was sure he was a goner. I carried him inside, tears streaming down my face, and set him down on the carpet he was still convulsing, but seems to be also starting to breath a little bit. His breaths were ragged, and sounded full of fluid. I picked up the phone, feeling a really weird sense of emotional detachment and called Linz, the pre-vet friend of mine. She tells me it was a very strange phone call, because my voice sounded hollow and cold. I simply told her that Levi got hit by a car, and I didn't think he was going to make it, and then hung up. I wasn't emotionally prepared for the devastation that seemed to be happening.

Lindsay had been close by studying at a coffee shop, so a few minutes later, she showed up and took control of the situation. By this time, Levi had woken up, and his eyes were wild with fear, as he was still struggling to breath. I held him and pet him to calm him, which seemed to work, as Linz checked his vitals and checked his pain responses for what possible injuries he might have had.  He didn't seem to have any pain response in his toes, which was not a good sign, and she was very worried about the sound of fluid coming from his lungs and the difficulty he seemed to be having breathing. We wrapped Levi up loosely in a blanket, and Linz and Kam drove me to the late night animal hospital while I held Levi. Even though it was only ten minutes await, that seemed like it was one of the longer car rides I had ever taken.


We finally arrived at the animal hospital, only to have to wait again. Levi had calmed down in my arms, breathing slowly, but still not moving and still rasping heavily. The vet took him in and ran a battery of tests on him, starting with the easy physical tests and working his way up to full body X-rays. Luckily Levi was still very small, so most of the expensive things were much less expensive than they could have been. A few hundred dollars later, the doctor came in with good news. Levi was going to be fine. He had deep bruising on his while left side where he was hit, some bruising on his internal organs, including a little bleeding in his left lung (the rasping we were hearing). He also sustained some bone bruising on his hips, ribs, and skull on the left side. When I asked why he was convulsing the vet told me that many times dogs can experience "having the wind knocked out of them" like we do, only this was an extreme case. Levi had probably had the wind knocked out of him, and possible a concussion that helped contribute some to the convulsions. It was hard to tell at this point. When it all boiled down to it, the vet said that what probably saved Levi was his age, and the fact that he was standing upright enough to be hit by the bumper. Given his size, he easily could have just passed under the bumper and been run over, in which case he wouldn't have made it. When they are young like he was at the time their bones are like rubber, and they have that youthful resiliency to bounce back from serious injuries. Levi had some bad bruising and some minor internal bleeding, but walked away without a broken bone. I was beyond elation; with a little rest and avoiding any serious exertion for a few weeks, my dog was going to be just fine.