September 1, 2009
Ekko's life could have been much worse when he was rescued and rehomed; he'd always had a home, and lived with a litter mate, but they lived outside. When medical issues caused that family to have to give up their two dogs, Ekko was adoped by a Northern Virginia family that included a mom & a dad, and for a short while after the adoption, a college age son who was due to head back to school about five weeks after he came to live with them.
2+ weeks in to his new life, Ekko got spooked by a loud noise outside the family home, and he managed to break free from confinement. He took off and was seen VERY few times over the next four weeks.
But there was no shortage of volunteers working to find him. A tracking dog team that had trained specifically to track missing pets came out several times to trail Ekko's scent. The tracks showed that Ekko was staying in the general area, though in a large loop that took quite a bit of work to cover in fliers.
At one point, because there had been no sightings for so long, volunteers tried to scare up sightings by staking out four points along the track for five hours straight, two nights in a row. Nothing. Talk about grim.
Meanwhile, on the morning that marked the 29th day that Ekko was lost, a man living about 5 blocks away from Ekko's home was leaving for work when he saw a dog in the bushes in his back yard. He went into the house and told his 7 year old daughter that there was a dog in the bushes in the back yard. (The mother was in the shower.) And then he left to go to work.
The girl went out and saw the dog. Smart enough to know that the dog's rescue couldn't wait for her mother to get out of the shower, this amazing young girl took immediate action. She reasoned that since they didn't have a dog, there was no leash she could pick up to go and contain the dog. But the next door neighbor had a dog, so she figured they should have a leash. So this angel called the next door neighbor and asked if she could borrow a leash.
Of course the neighbor said, "Sure, but what do you need it for and where's your mother?"
"She's in the shower, and there's a dog in my back yard," the young girl said.
The neighbor got a leash and some ham, and then made a detour between her house and the girl's house next door to go to the telephone pole and grab a tab with the phone number off the lost dog flier that had been posted for weeks. When she reached the area where the dog was hiding in the bushes, she knew immediately that it was the elusive Ekko.
Apparently, it took a little effort to leash him, but she did. And not two or three minutes later, some workmen showed up to get started on a construction project for the day, at the girl's house or the neighbor's house. So as it happened, there was really only a very small window in which to have safely contained this dog. Had the girl waited for her mother to get out of the shower . . . well, I prefer not to think about it.
Ekko still had his collar and tags, and the neighbor called his family. As she'd been instructed to do, Ekko's mom immediately called a volunteer to meet them at the house. The volunteer arrived first, and whisked Ekko off to the vet, where they met Ekko's mom & dad. He was very docile, and very good, but he didn't show much emotion with the girl, the neighbor or the volunteer. But he went crazy when he saw his mom & dad! He kind of jumped on Maureen -- he put his paws up on her, which wouldn't have made me wince if he didn't have a broken leg!
Ekko was doing both better AND worse than he could have -- he was flea & parasite free, thankfully, and not dirty or smelly. But he was dehydrated and emaciated and he had a front leg broken in two places -- probably by a car within the first few days that he was on the run.
Ekko's recovery was yesterday, and here's the post-surgery report:
After 3 hours of surgery, Ekko is doing fine. Yes, it took longer than expected. The objective of the surgery was to install a bone plate (8 pin) under the skin. The doctor at Suburban Animal Hospital (Arlington) said that is took longer than expected because there was some dead bone in the center of the leg. He estimates that Ekko broke the leg on or soon after he got away on 8/03/09. He may have been hit by a car and hid while he tried to heal. That is probably why it was difficult to locate him. (It is amazing that he tracked as far as he did with a broken leg.) Unfortunately, the bone started healing, over those four weeks, in the wrong way creating a deformity, or almost an extra joint in the bone. It was not a strong mend. Doing nothing and putting on a cast would have handicapped Ekko for the rest of his life. The doctor removed about one inch of the bad bone and replaced with a synthetic bone that is better than actual bone. Also a 12-pin bone plate was installed because of the loss of the extra bone. Ekko is resting comfortably with ice on his leg with the help of pain killers at the hospital. He might be home on Monday. The doctor expects him to fully recover in 8-12 weeks.
Another lost dog safely recovered. And we helped!!!
More info at: http//findekko.blogspot.com
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