Sunday night we had the worst scare of our lives! I opened the front door and Rusty slipped by me. Usually if Rusty gets out as soon as I say “Rusty inside” he flips around and runs inside or he’ll pee on a tree in the front yard then come back. This time, Rusty was on a mission I was yelling his name, and no response! Jeff was out by the street taking the trash out. Rusty was running full speed diagonally across our yard then driveway and into the street. I saw a blue car speeding by, and saw it all play out right before it happened. It was the MOST terrifying moment of my life. A scene that has been permanently burned into my brain, and has continued to play over and over in my mind the past few days. Since Jeff was right there he was able to get to Rusty and saw that there was a good amount of blood. He was quickly able to access that it was coming from his leg. His paw was dangling. Jeff clutched his leg and could feel that the bones were completely detached. He had a compound fracture, one of the bones had broken the skin (causing the bleeding). It was sooo sad to see him like this and to hear him in pain. I ran next door (our neighbor is a vet) of course he wasn’t home. I threw the kids in the car and we worked for the next 30min. to find an OPEN animal hospital. (on a Sunday this is quite the feat) I was calling frantically while driving getting phone machine after phone machine, Jeff couldn’t help because he was trying to hold Rusty’s leg together and control bleeding. Finally a man answered the other end of the line, they were an hour away! We rushed there, it was the most stressful hour of my life. All these horrible scenarios were playing out in our minds, and we voiced some of them. Would he have to lose his leg? Long story short, he needed surgery. We opted for the external fixture route, considering he’s such a high energy dog, and keeping him low activity was going to be pretty much impossible.
Pre surgery x-rays…
Post surgery X-rays…. 
As you can see all went pretty well with the surgery, and hopefully since he’s young he’ll be healed and back to normal in no time!
We are beyond excited to have this sweet boy home!
We’re trying to focus on the positives in this whole stressful/expensive experience. The outcome could have been much worse! If Rusty had gotten out a second sooner he would have been hit head on and would have been killed. We can’t live w/out our Rusty! Perhaps the guy that hit Rusty needed a wakeup call. Maybe this will make him a more attentive driver, and maybe Rusty’s misfortune will save the life of a future child. Whatever the reason, we have a stronger appreciation for our Rusty, AND our Ginger, and the time we have with them on this earth. Thank you to all of you who prayed for him, and helped us out in our moment worry and chaos!
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