I work and live on a small horse ranch in Colorado, in a tiny house attached to the stable. I had been there about half a year when Pilot came in to my life. I had adopted a 16lb cat a couple months, named Football because well…she’s shaped like a football! But I was thinking about how much fun it would be to have a dog to keep my company while I worked. So after finding a corgi/dachshund mix on Petfinder I went to the Boulder Huamane Society to visit him. Though I got a call before I left saying that he had been adopted out that morning. Even though I was a bit heartbroken about not being able to adopt the dog, I decided to go anyway and “just look around”….
The first dog I saw was a tiny little white dog with huuuge red ears, hanging out in the corner of a kennel in a dog bed. He just looked up a bit, then curled back up and fell asleep. But I thought he was cute, so I took a note of his kennel number. I then fell in love with a border collie mix and a boxer mix, and went up to the front desk to visit with them. I waited in their outside visitation area, super excited. First came the border collie, Max. He walked up to me, said hi, then wandered around looking for a toy to play with. He was adorable, but things didn’t quite click. So I said goodbye and waited for the boxer. Same sort of thing happened with her. She said hi, ate some treats, then just hung around chewing on toys while I heard about her history. It looked like I hadn’t found my dog yet…so I went ahead and asked about the little puppy I had passed by. He had just been brought in and neutered the day before, so they weren’t sure if they could adopt him out yet. But they agreed to let me visit him anyway. I waited a few minutes, then the door opened up….
This little 10lb ball of fluff and ears came shooting out, jumped up on my lap, and started licking my face. He couldn’t stop smiling and squirming for more pets and belly rubs. It only took a few minutes before I was ready to fill out the papers and take him home.
Looking back on the pictures of him, I can’t believe how tiny he was! Yet his ears were big enough to pick up radio signals. He was off-leash trained in two days, and was hanging out while I did work around the ranch. After a week he started learning how to herd the horses in and out of the pastures, that came in handy! The little guy never stopped going, and never stopped wagging his tail. The months went by, he got bigger, and I grew more attached. They say you get one good dog in your life, I think I found mine.
Though a few months back, while I was giving the herd their grain, Pilot had an accident. The horses were not very happy with him at this point because Pilot was getting really good at moving them. Though he has a hard time finding a balance of pushing, and nipping at their heels. So when he walked behind one of the horses during the feeding, it kicked out at him. Probably thinking he was going to start herding him. Pilot got hit right in the face. He yelped and yelped, and fell down to the ground in a bloody mess.
Pilot was bleeding out of his nose, and gunk was coming out of his eye. He had a broken nose that swelled up fast. He was a bit crooked for a week, but luckily it heeled up very well! It didn’t slow him down one bit, he stayed his happy self the whole time. I had him back off from herding for a while. No more injuries.
No fast forward to last Thursday, Pilot is now just over 9months old. I had been busy at another barn, and just got home to turn the horses out. I hadn’t been able to work with my horses that day, so I walked out to the pasture to groom them and relax in the grass. However when I got out there and started grooming my new Mustang gelding, I noticed blood all over my boots. I looked up to see his lip split into two parts, gushing blood. So I called for someone to get a halter while I applied pressure to his lip. I just wanted to relax after a long day….what luck. Dublin (my Mustang) didn’t seem to care about the injury, he kept eating grass like nothing happened. I took him up to the barn and cleaned it up, but there wasn’t much I could do for it. Stitches would come out, and it wasn’t bothering him too much. So I put him back out to pasture after the bleeding stopped and the lip was cleaned out.
I decided to keep him in a stall until it healed up, so I could keep an eye on it and make it easier for him to eat. In came the horses from the pasture, and I opened the gate for Dublin to go up to the barn. But he refused to go up, so I had Pilot chase him out. After some laps around the paddock he came out, but wouldn’t go in the stall. At this point Pilot was being a little too nippy with him, so I told him to back off.
As soon as he was about to turn back, Dublin struck out a back leg and nailed Pilot right in the shoulder.
He flew back, got up, then fell right back down yelping in pain. His leg was dangling off his shoulder, like it was lifeless. Without question, we loaded him into the truck and searched for a pet hospital that was open late. I got him into a small clinic and got him on pain meds and an IV right away. The next two hours were spent in the lobby waiting for results and trying to figure out what to do. If it was a fracture, he’d had to have pins or a plate. Would that hold well? How much is that going to cost? Then I saw the x-ray…
My heart sunk. That wasn’t a little fracture, that was a clean break in half. The bones were overlapping. The vet estimated repair costs to save the leg would cost $3500-$5500, would be risky, and might not hold up in the long run. I cried, there was no way I could afford that. His leg would have to be amputated. Everything from then was a blur. I ended up taking him home with pain meds after fours hours of being in the emergency clinic and racking up $360 in bills. I stayed up all night keeping on eye on him and making sure he was comfortable. I’d call around in the morning.
The next day I made close to 50 calls to every vet and animal clinic I could find getting estimates on how much an amputation would be. $2500-$3000 kept coming up, and my hope started faltering. Then I found one who could do $1200, but needed everything up front. Would I ever be able to find a vet for Pilot? I was getting worried. Then, as one of my last attempts for the day, I called a vet recommended by a friend’s sister. The front desk said they’d get back to me with an estimate, and have the vet talk to me about payment options.
This is where everything turned around. The estimate was $850. I could put part of that on the CareCredit card I had applied for from the emergency clinic, and come up with the rest. I knew I’d be in debt, but Pilot wouldn’t be in pain anymore. So I took him the next morning, and finally got some rest.
Pilot is currently lying down next me taking a nap. This weekend was a huge change for him! It’s been tough, but this little guy is still smiling and wagging his tail. He’s a fighter! I know that he’ll bounce back quickly, and be back out riding in the gator around the ranch with me in no time. I’m also working on getting him a web master harness to help him out.
Kinda brings new meaning to Red Heeler doesn’t it?
-Sienna