Society for Aesthetic Deletions

The following message landed in my email box this morning, courtesy of my friend Grant, aka ShadowSpawn. These are the folks we go visit every Thanksgiving.

I wanted to blog this because of the amazing close escape dear Ruby had, but also because of Bridget's amazingly cool head for a 10-year-old. Once it was made clear what it was she needed to do.

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Just thought y'all might want to know - our dog, Ruby, got hit by a car this afternoon. I'd gone outside to pump up the tire on Bridget's bike, and Ruby was out "helping". She was not, alas, on her leash (I mean, we were only going to be out for five minutes - what could happen?)

A guy came walking down the other side of the street with his dog. Ruby looked up, saw the dog, and ran towards it - straight into/under an oncoming car. She got hit and dragged about 30 feet down the road, trapped under the front of the vehicle. A neighbor had to bring a jack to lift the front of the car off of her for us to get her out.

Total damage: a patch of skin on her head. Another patch and a big bruise on her side. A pressure-cut on her shoulder, from the air-dam/spoiler under the car. A left canine tooth, broken off just above the gum line. And a gross greasy patch on her fur where she rubbed up against the axle or something and got car-grease all over herself.

That's it, folks. She's sore as hell, and has to think about it for a while before she'll climb up on her couch - but she's generally Just Fine, Thank You.

Bridget freaked completely - until I turned to her and said, "There's no time for that right now, Ruby needs you!" At which, she shut up, took a deep breath, and went and lay down at the side of the car to talk to the dog and soothe her while we worked on getting her free. At this point, the gravest danger the dog faces is being smothered to death in oceans of Bridget-care...

I suspect the worst damage to have come from this whole thing was to the poor guy driving the car. One of the neighboring high-school kids and his date - I suspect we ruined his evening plans. I did make a point of going to both of them and making sure they knew it was -NOT- their fault - but the guy was pretty shook, and his girlfriend was in tears. I failed to get his name, though, so I can't reassure him after our visit to the vet; I'm hoping I "see him around" at some point.

I'm still kinda freaked. I think Bridget summed it up best, on the way to the vet's: "Ruby's guardian angel must be in Angel Hospital right now, getting fixed up for having stepped in front of that car to protect Ruby." I will confess that the idea of an Angel Hospital, with a bunch of bored angels in dirty bandages and braces, reading waaaay out-of-date Angel Magazines in the waiting room while some Angel-nurse called out "Neeeext", caused a certain amount of hilarity in the car.

I'm tired. I need to go to bed now. It's been a hella weekend. (Did I mention I slipped on the stairs on Friday and popped my (*#^$&*%^ shoulder again? No, I didn't think so...) Just thought I should keep y'all up to date on the continuing soap-opera that is The Life of the Gaineys. Maybe we could get a time-slot on Fox; this has -got- to be better fare than some of what they're pushing this season...
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I must agree with the latter sentiment, Grant. And I'm glad everything is okay in the end.