Saturday, June 19, 2010

Flash Flood Rescue



Mom did a real exciting rescue yesterday!!! Personally I think she's NUTS!!!
I do NOT approve of lightning!!!!!
Here's her story
Tailwags,
BudBud

Ovidio, a young man who lives down the road from us, called me from work just before a horrendous cloudburst.
He told me someone had driven in, late last night, and dumped dogs and puppies down at the corral. As you know I have the two new kids that came in this week so I really don't have a place for any more. I sat there for maybe 2 minutes after his call thinking, "Don't go. You don't have room." before I got up and started walking down to the corral. It had already started raining and thundering so I turned around and came back to the house to get the car.

I stopped at Ovidios house to pick up his little niece. He had told me she could show me where the dogs were.

When we got down to the corral there were 2 adult females and 5 puppies. The largest of the two adults was laying in a cardboard box with four of the puppies. The smaller adult was up against the fence with one puppy.

I got leashes out of the car and put them on the adult dogs and handed one of the leads to the little girl. I started back to the car with the bigger dog who decided she did not want to go.
About that time the skies opened up. Lightning was striking all around us and it was raining so hard I couldn't see but a few feet in front of me.

The little girl, more worried about the puppies than the adult dogs, dropped the leash and gathered up all the puppies, tossed them into the cardboard box and loaded them in the back seat of the car.
Finally, after getting the toe of my shoe caught in a vine and falling, I got the bigger dog to the car and tossed her in the back seat with the puppies.
At that point we realized the other dog had run off. WITH A SLIP LEAD ON HER NECK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I told the kid to get in the car and stay. I was afraid she was going to be struck by lightning it was striking so close. I ran back to the area where the dogs had been but the dog was not there.

By this time it was flash flooding and there was a RIVER running through the pole barn and out across where the box had been with the puppies in it. They would all have been washed away or drowned. Even the two adult dogs might have been washed away the flooding was so strong.

I went back to the car and we sat and waited to see if the other dog would come back. She finally came running past the car. I think she was running from the lightning.

I saw her run toward the barn. It was still a downpour and the lightning was still striking close by.
As I got out of the car the little girl said something to me in spanish but I didn't understand it and I jumped out anyway to try to catch the dog.

I ran to the area where the dogs had been again. By this time the "river" was about half way between my ankles and knees. It was rushing water full of mud and cow poop. Healthy huh?

I didn't see the dog. Lightning struck REAL close by. I ran up past the barn and into the woods to see if the dog was up there. No luck.

By this time I am, of course, SOPPING wet and praying that I didn't get hit by lightning.

Coming back through the "river" the water was rushing so fast it knocked my left foot out from under me and down I went again. In the cow poop river!!!!

I ran back to the car planning to just sit there and wait until it stopped storming and THEN get out and find the dog.

When I jumped back in the car the little girl said something to me, again in spanish.
But this time I caught a few words.
She was saying the dog was under our car.
She had been there the whole time I was wading in rivers of cow poop and dodging lightning strikes.

I got out and called to her but she wouldn't come close enough for me to grab her or the leash. So I got down and crawled under the car, in the mud, to reach the leash.

I tossed her in the back of the car and started trying to turn around in the mud in a steep area. I managed to get turned around and dropped the little girl off at her house and drove back to my house with the dogs.

Bruce and I unloaded them in the rain. I didn't have a clue which puppies belonged to which dog.

We got them inside the clinic, got them dried off and warm, and I put the bigger dog in a crate with the four pups she was laying in the cardboard box with. I put the smaller dog in another crate with the one pup who was with her against the fence.
Within seconds, the pups were all yelling at me, "HEY LADY!! This is our grandmother!! Did you even check to see if she's got milk?? (sheeeesh...stoopid humans)

Soooo...I put all the pups in the crate with the smaller dog and everyone was happy.

I had to wait about posting the full story because I was way too angry.
If I ever find out who dumped these precious babies will one of you promise to bail me out?

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