Gale Marcoux
Posted: 10:49 a.m. January 20, 2010
What do the following items have in common? Family pet, car accident, microchip, good Samaritan.
The answer is - a happy ending.
How is it those items have a common thread? The following story is true. It happened Monday, January 19 at Westarbor Animal Hospital.
The staff of Westarbor received a call from a concerned client. Nancy Shipway was heading out from her Cavanaugh Lake home to run errands. She didn’t get very far. She found an older mix breed dog walking down the country road. Since Nancy is an avid animal lover, she stopped to see if this lone soul needed help!
The skinny, older dog jumped into the back of her car. Well, now what? Nancy called Westarbor Animal Hospital. She said I’m on the way with this cute skinny, old dog. Her biggest worry was that he had been dumped in the winter to fend for himself. His tags were old and almost illegible. His sweet, sad face struck every one at Westarbor. He needed our help.
Stefanie Hedding, Practice Manager, had Dr. Teresa Londenberg give the old guy a complete check over. A Westarbor technician scanned the old soul for a microchip. Lo and behold, there was an Avid Microchip. The staff called Avid and got the information that this dog was from Oklahoma. The chip was assigned to a veterinary hospital.
That’s when all the pieces fell together. This sweet boy had been involved in a horrible car accident on I-94 by Kalmbach Road. His human parents were severely injured. The accident caused the back window of the car to blow. Sweebie ran from the accident scene dazed and confused. He left behind his human parents and other canine sibling.
“By the time the paramedics arrived on the scene I was pretty dazed," said Mark Sisson, who had been visiting from Oklahoma over the holidays with his wife Betty Ann. “I thought I was pretty lucid, but my wife was already pretty hysterical about Sweebie being missing. She refused to leave the scene until some of the rescue workers agreed to look for him.”
The post-holiday accident occurred Jan. 5. “My wife and I were so depressed, but still holding onto hope. Two weeks in the Michigan winter is such a long time for any animal. We weren't sure if he was hurt.”
“Sweebie is a very special animal to me because he was my gift to myself after a year of volunteering at our humane society in Stillwater, OK.,’ said Mark. “I would walk dogs every Friday and sometimes on Tuesdays as well, and I really became fond of Sweebie and his sister Teena. When Teena was adopted, I made a vow that I would rescue Sweebie as well. He had been in our shelter from early October of 2000 until May of 2001 when I adopted him. Since then we have had nine really grand years together, and he often comes on road trips and usually stays with me at my art studio at Oklahoma State University where I am a professor. We just do everything together. We think our other dog, ZuZu, a 14-year-old Basenji, really misses him as well.”
Almost two weeks later, Sweebie was found by Nancy Shipway. How many people had passed him and kept going? Where did he sleep? What did he eat? How did he survive? He lost almost 12 pounds in two weeks time. Dr. Londonberg found nothing physically wrong with him, except that Sweebie was thin and exhausted.
When Westarbor called Mark, he couldn’t believe it. He sent his parents to retrieve his long lost canine. Sweebie quickly ate several meals from Westarbor and feel asleep on the fluffy quilt given to him by the staff.
When Mark’s parents arrived, Sweebie took a minute to reconnect with them. His eyes became bright again, and his tail starting wagging like crazy. Sweebie will be reunited with his owners in a couple of months.
“I can't thank you, Nancy Shipway and the folks at Westarbor Animal Hospital enough. My folks are going to nurse him back to full strength, and we hope to pick him up on Spring Break, which is mid-March," Mark said.
"I'll certainly pay you a visit at that time. You have made our recuperation from our physical ailments much easier by easing our heavy emotional burden.”
Resource: http://www.annarbor.com/community/pets/lost_dog_survives_car_accident_and_two_weeks_in_michigan_winter/
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