Christmas Chaos – December 20

We had planned to be out to dinner this evening with good friends, the latest in a flood of visits with friends and family. I was planning to catch up with blogging tomorrow with many pictures of our social whirl. As often happens, plans changed.

I was doing barn chores today, later than usual, after spending the morning preparing for the coming bad weather. Temperatures are forecast to make this week the coldest December in decades, arriving Thursday. Harry and I put the blade on the tractor and parked various machines in the shed.

Meanwhile, Weedy and the girls had gone out on their usual afternoon adventure. Cedar and Nettie came home fairly promptly, but it was a beautiful afternoon, and Weedy was venturing far afield. Harry always keeps an eye on his dog’s travels via the Tractive GPS. At around 3 (with our departure scheduled for 4PM), Harry noticed that Weedy was stationary at the south end (“the top”) of the back hayfield. He assumed there was another dead deer. Various leg parts keep appearing on the lawn, so we know there is a dead deer somewhere.

Harry walked up the hill, and to his horror found Weedy in a leg hold trap. He called me, and I drove up in the Kawasaki Mule at top speed. As it happened, the work we had done in the morning made it easy to leave at speed. I was terrified that Harry would have a heart attack before I got there.

There is no excuse for such a horrific device to be legal in the twenty-first century, but we live in Missouri. The trap was set on our neighbor’s property, and is legal, but sickening.

Weedy was caught by his right hind foot, and he was incredibly stoic. He had made no effort to escape, sure that Harry would save him, which, of course, he did. It took both of us to extricate the poor dog, who was uncomplaining, but in obvious pain. At first, I didn’t think we could free him, but Harry had it figured out, and he held Weedy up while I stepped on both sides of the trap to release it. It was sunk into the ground, and impossible to pull up, but when the jaws opened, Weedy was lifted free.

We carried him to the Mule, and rushed homeward. Marilyn, the closest veterinarian, was at the doctor (human doctor), so was unavailable. The Ellisville Veterinary clinic told us to go to the Animal Emergency Clinic (very far from here) because they were too busy. We called the Franklin Animal Medical Clinic (FMAC) in Washington, Missouri, and they told us it might be a wait, they would triage in the waiting room, but we could come on. In fact, Washington is as close as Wentzville, it’s just that we seldom go that direction. Weedy was carried to the car, then carried into the waiting room and put onto his dog bed, which we brought from the car.

Understand that his foot was compressed to about 1/4 inch. It was horrifying, and it didn’t seem possible that every bone in his foot wasn’t broken. But when they took him back to radiology (Harry had to lead the way at first, since Weedy wouldn’t leave him) they wanted to see him try to walk, and he actually bore weight on the foot!

After an interminable wait, and some tears shed, the tech came out to report that there were no broken bones. Dr. Sara Bryan, the veterinarian, brought Weedy to us, and reported that he was the “best patient of the day”. He never spent time in a cage. Weedy was so sweet and personable in radiology, that he was welcomed into the back office to wait for Dr. Sara to finish up. He has some anti inflammatory medicine and will probably be quite sore for a while. He even got his Rabies shot, which was due this week, since there is really nothing major wrong. We are grateful on so many levels – that he was wearing a Tractive GPS collar; that we were able to open the trap; that he is the bravest, most stoic dog ever, so he did not panic and try to pull loose; that FMAC welcomed us and gave us the compassion we needed on the worst Christmas week ever; and that there was no surgery needed, so Weedy can sleep in our bed tonight.

All of the other news from here will have to wait, while I recover from this misadventure, which thankfully ended well. Merry Christmas, indeed!

Be safe. Be well. Avoid traps, and the sort of people that would set them. Slava Ukraini! Peace.