Gizmo is fine... but what a morning.

I was barely awake… stumbling to the bathroom when I heard Michael and Jacob shouting Gizmo had been hit by a car (he’s fine… I won’t keep you in suspense).
Michael ran inside, got his keys and had me look up in the yellow pages the emergency vet. He had scooped up the dog and put him in his car. Michael was covered in blood. Jacob was crying. Michael was wigging out and my eyes could barley focus on the little print in the yellow pages. Michael grabbed his phone, couldn’t find his wallet and left. I had my wallet, I told him I’d be right behind him. I got dressed, got my keys and Jacob grabbed Bearda (the trusty stuffed animal who sees him through any crisis). We both jumped in my car and raced after Michael. The emergency vet is open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. It was now 7:20 a.m. and we were half-way across town. We were close to our old vet’s office, I got Michael on the phone and he headed that way. I knew they opened at 7 to take surgery patients. I got 411 and called in advance. The office is open, but they don’t take phone calls directly until 8:00 – so I had the answering service. They also don’t have a vet until 8:00 they only have technicians. Michael arrived and rushed Gizmo inside. They took him in and got an IV started, washed him and were able to keep him comfortable until the vet got there. Since I had paged via the answering service the doctor got there about 7:45.

Jacob and I saw Michael just in front of us, take the dog inside, leave him with the technician and go to the bathroom and clean up. I parked my car and then moved Michael’s still running, doors open, car into a spot. The passenger seat was pretty bad. I’m glad Jacob didn’t see it. It scared me. We went inside. Michael came out of the bathroom. He was still in shock. Jacob and I were scared, but it was good that we all hadn’t seen the dog. It was hard enough to see Michael’s clothes and car seat soaked in blood. I called the office and school. Michael called his carpooling friend. We waited.

The doctor got there and came to tell us that Gizmo would make it. Until she had a chance to sedate him and look closer she couldn’t tell us everything, but it looked like his eye and jaw were the problem. The brunt of the impact was only on his left cheek. He may lose an eye, but that she would know more this morning and would call us.

We got home and got back on track. The other dog, Beam, is freaking out. These two have been together since they were puppies. They’ve never been separated. Beam has serious separation anxiety. Since we adopted them, he’s not been able to comfortably be alone. The next 3 days will be hard on him. I made it to work, Jacob made it to school and Michael has the day off – Tech is closed. He’s cleaning out his car – and having the seats shampooed.

The vet called. Gizmo is doing fine. He's stable and resting. They were able to sedate him and check him out a little more in depth. Dr. Clark thinks they might be able to save the eye. It probably would not be functional but it would remain intact. They are going to sew it shut and let the lids serve as a protective bandage, leave it for 2-3 weeks and then check on it. They try to leave as much intact as possible if they can. The jaw is a clean break about Mid-Jaw line. She said those are the easiest to heal. If it is in the back of the jaw with the joint, it is hard.

They will do surgery on Tuesday - they want to keep him for 24 hours first, to make sure he's not got anything else brewing or injured. They will keep him until Wednesday or Thursday for recovery.