The big dog awoke that afternoon in December to the unmistakable sound of a car coming down the road. It wasn't just any car, no, this was "the nice lady's" car, the woman that had welcomed him in as a stray and had taken such good care of him since he showed up on her doorstep almost a year ago. He let his mind wander to the day he discovered this Heaven on earth. "How had he missed it?" After all, he was born just a ways up the road. But there, his owners were mean and dirty and paid no real attention to him. One day he got up, and just decided to go find himself a better place to live. As he walked in front of this house, he felt an overwhelming sense of love and friendliness. "This is my new home", he remembered thinking, "a place to feel loved and wanted". He was a black labrador retriever, larger than most, but even he needed to feel like someone, anyone, cared about him. This woman gave him food and water every day, but most importantly, she gave him plenty of big hugs and a million kisses she called "sugar". In return, he brought her "gifts" which consisted of pine cones, leaves, and an occaisional tree limb. The two of them had a routine, that gave both what they needed...he gave her a present, she rubbed his belly and gave him love before each meal he ate. His life was very good, indeed, and as she turned into the driveway, he hopped up to go find her a "goodie". As she drove closer, he saw the familiar smile, and his huge tail began to wag.
When the car rolled gently to a stop, he was ready and waiting, his tail wagging faster and faster with much anticipation. "She's home!", he thought, "The nice lady is home!" This was his favorite time of the day, the woman seemed to be smiling more than usual. he sensed something good must be going on in her life, something had her smiling even before she opened her door to greet him. "Oh Chico!" she said, "How's my big 'ol bruiser boy?" He had no name before he found this place...no identity, only getting ran off from every place he tried to visit, by humans using mean and hateful words he didn't even understand. She called him "Chico", and it suited him just fine, it felt so good just to have a name. The lady took her "prize" from his mouth, a twig with a pine cone still attached, so he rolled onto his back for the traditional tummy rub. He knew of nothing in the whole wide world that felt better than her soft fingers touching his stomach, this was surely worth a million pine cones each day. Right at the point that he thought he would pass out from enjoyment, the lady stopped and stood up. "I love you, Chico, you are mommy's little man! Thank you for my beautiful gift!" With that she turned and walked up the steps and into the house, all the while looking over her shoulder and giving him one last kind look. He jumped to his feet, and since there was about an hour and a half of daylight left, decided to head out to see what kind of trouble he could get into, then be back here on his soft blanket a little after dark. It was a decision he would later regret, his nightmare was just beginning.
He headed out of the yard, and into the setting sun, not a care in the world except for just enjoying life as a dog. He was a handsome boy, and had accumulated many girlfriends, but tonight it was just about himself and whatever smells that happened to drift by his sensitive nose. After about five and a half miles of chasing squirrels, rabbits, and day old scents, he decided it was time to turn back. He had had his fun, and the thought of laying down on his warm blanket sounded pretty damn good to him. He was in a clearing of trees, and gave the area one quick look around before turning back towards home, and the nice lady with the gentle touch. Winter was here, and even though it was not bitter cold, he broke into a quick trot, and for some unknown reason all he could think about was getting back to his cozy bed on the front porch. He heard a noise, a click, over his left shoulder, then the roar of a high powered rifle broke the silence and shattered his dream of making it home all in one split second. He felt the bullet enter from the left, back by his rear end, and exit out the right side bringing with it chunks of hair, skin, and muscle. The impact rolled him over more times than he could count, but he did remember striking his head on a large rock just above his right eye. The pain was unlike anything he had ever felt, and he instantly knew he was hurt bad. He had to make it home, home to the nice lady, home to her love and her very soft hands. She could fix him, she could make this all better, if he could just make it home.
There were no more noises except for those made by nature, it was as though every creature in the area knew what had happened. He lay perfectly still, not moving a muscle, unsure if there would be a second shot. Pain racked his whole body, it seemed as if every part of him was numb, or on fire, still he remained motionless. After what seemed like days, he risked moving his head, trying to see if the human was standing over him, ready to fire his weapon again, at the first sign of life. Well after dark, he made his first attempt to get up. No such luck, between the damage the hollow point had done tearing through his flesh, and the hours of not moving immediately afterward, he was too sore and stiff to make it up on all fours. He came to the conclusion that this was it, this was how he'd die, alone and scared out in the middle of nowhere. He thought of the nice lady, and how she had been the one and only person to ever show him love, the only one to ever show him what love actually felt like. He started to cry. He had never cried before, never even had a reason to, or the knowledge that he could cry. He was "big tough Chico", the dog that struck fear in the hearts of all dogs he ever came across. If they could only see him now. He wouldn't, nor couldn't let it end like this. He tried once more to stand. Nothing. Again, with the same results. On the fourth try, he mustered the heart of a lion and got up on four very shaky legs. "That's more like it", he thought, as he stood there waiting for his legs to stop trembling.
Now up on his feet, it was time to do a little damage assessment. Even though it hurt like hell, he bent his neck back to get a look at his wounds. On his left side was a small hole that, besides a dull burning, seemed to be just fine. On the right side, however, things looked much worse. A large portion of his hip was gone, just gone, and it seemed like this was the place most of his pain was coming from. He could taste his own blood as he licked this area, and decided that if he was going to make it back home, back to the lady that could help him most, he had to leave right now. Dazed and confused, he chose to follow his own trail back the way he came, instead of relying on his internal compass for direction. Gaining only a few hundred yards at a time, he started the long and very painful road home keeping constant in his mind that he had to get to the nice lady, he truly believed she was the only person that could save his life. For two days he walked, day and night, resting only when it became too painful to keep moving. At one point, he was hurting so badly that he thought he wasn't going to make it, but he waded out into a creek, and the icy cold water not only helped deaden the pain, but also helped slow down the infection that was quickly setting in. The only thing he kept telling himself was he was going to make it, hell, he HAD to make it, he had to get to the lady with the big smile and the gentle touch for she would make all the pain disappear, and make this nightmare go away.
After almost two and a half days of walking, he could finally see his home off in the distance, ironically, it was Christmas morning. He had fought through the pain and had made it to where he knew help was waiting for him with loving arms. He rounded the house, and slowly climbed the stairs to the front porch, almost passing out from the pain. Just as he reached the top step, the front door opened and there stood the nice lady looking down at him with terror and fear in her eyes. "It's Chico, he's been hurt, I think he's been shot!" he heard her say into the phone she held to her ear, "I'll call you back in a bit!" She closed her cell phone and rushed to his side. What followed in the next few minutes will always be remembered by him as the most incredible plan put into place to save a dogs life. She coaxed him inside, and got a better look at his injuries. "Oh Chico! Who did this to you?" She was fighting back tears, but there never walked a more determined woman on the face of this earth. Acting as if she was a trained veterinarian, she went straight to examining, cleaning, and dressing his wounds. With a calm loving voice, she would not allow her dog to die, and with just as strong a determination as his own, she willed him to live, so that someday soon, he could bring her gifts, and she could rub her "bruiser boys" stomach. Together they fought, her laynig with him on a bathroom floor covered with blood, and him being overwhelmed by pain that seemed to affect his entire body. Throughout the whole first part of his recovery, she told him "I love you Chico, you're going to feel much better, real soon!"
The next few days turned into quite a blur, he was delirious with pain, she was giving him gentle and loving care. Everything seemed to point towards a complete and miraculous recovery, despite him losing his tail, his big thick beautiful tail, a result of the bullet smashing through the bones that made up it's frame. That brought tears to the nice lady's eyes, but she just said, "you don't need a tail for me to love you, Chico!" Then she spotted it, something she had hoped and prayed she would not see. Fecal matter was coming from both wounds in large amounts, and he spent more time laying motionless on the bathroom floor. She acted quickly, this was getting to the point that she felt she was losing her big 'ol bruiser boy. Both of them arrived at the animal hospital looking strong and confident, but without even laying a finger on the dog, the Vet told them his outlook was extremely poor. With a little argument, they agreed to keep the dog for a few days, irrigate the wounds, and start him on an I.V. of anti-biotics, but gave no promises and told her to prepare for the worst. Again, he was without his loving owner, she was without her little buddy. Both felt scared and alone. He stayed there for six days, with no improvement, but with her checking on him every day. Finally, they called her and told her to come pick him up, that there was nothing more they could do for the dog. Against their advice to "put the old dog down", she picked him up, promising that whether he lived or died, he would do it at home...HIS HOME! The nice lady took the dogs lead from the doctor, and said "c'mon, big boy, we're taking you home!" Once in the car, she was bathed in kisses from her littlest man, in a way he had never done before. "Oh Chico, mommy loves you so much!"
For the next two weeks, the lady barely left the dogs side, constantly caring for him and encouraging him to fight to live. Several times he reverted back to his wild days, once even chewing through the bathroom door in an attempt to get out. The woman had put him in there to restrict his movement and to keep him in a clean environment, but it did not hold the big boy in. On another day, he chewed through the fencing of a kennel she had built for him, by herself, on the back porch. Though he would not run far, there seemed to be no way of keep him pinned in, even though he probably knew the lady was doing it for his own good. Finally, she fixed his wagon by chaining him to a telephone pole out back, and was able to keep him clean and give him his medicine on a daily basis. This seemed to do the trick, because the hole slowly closed up, and he got stronger each day, gaining back most of the weight he had lost since being shot. Day by day, he improved, something the lady never doubted, not even once. Each day, there was more hope...each day, she was proud of the dogs will to live. A month and a half after the accident, she took Chico back to the Vet for a follow-up exam, looking forward to showing the doubting old man what they had accomplished. With one look at her and the dog, the man exclaimed "Ma'am, you single handedly saved this dogs life! Nothing we did seemed to help him, but just look at him now!" Silence. "I didn't save my dog" the woman said, too proud to take any of the credit. "Love saved him!" With that, she gave a gentle tug on the big dogs leash, "c'mon Chico, let's go home..."
