By Susannah Bryan, Sun Sentinel
January 3, 2012
WESTON— Elyssa Hausman remembers sitting in the median in a daze, peering at the Hyundai's shattered back window.
That's when it hit her. Where was Tasha?
The family's 11-year-old black Labrador had been in the back with the luggage.
And now she was nowhere to be found.
Worse news was to come. In the ambulance on the way to the hospital, Elyssa, 17, learned the woman she called mom had died in the crash.
The family of four was driving home on Christmas Eve after a 10-day vacation when another car drifted into their lane near Port Orange and sideswiped their Hyundai SUV.
Their vehicle careened into the grass median on southbound Interstate 95 and flipped before hitting a tree.
Chris Goss, 54, died at the scene. Her 18-year-old son Jeffery Goss, her longtime companion Steven Hausman and his daughter Elyssa made it out with scrapes and bruises.
Hausman and Goss met in 2003 and never married, but considered themselves a family, Elyssa said.
Griefstruck, the three survivors drove home to Weston on Christmas Day. They had funeral arrangements to make. And a dog to find.
Elyssa called animal shelters, the Volusia County pound, state highway officials, even the company that mows the median along I-95.
No luck. After six days, the family had almost given up hope of ever seeing Tasha again.
Then a call came in from an animal control officer in Volusia County.
On the day after Goss' funeral, Tasha had been found wandering near the crash site, hungry and thirsty and covered in ticks.
A veterinary technician drove Tasha home that same day. But first she needed surgery — 32 stitches on a seven-inch gash that stretched from the top of her head to her neck.
"I have no idea how she survived the crash," said Amanda Goss, 23, who came home from college after getting the news about her mom. "We think my mom had something to do with it. We believe my mom wanted to give us back the dog so we could have some kind of joy while we are grieving."
As soon as the car drove up in the driveway about 10:30 p.m., the family dashed out to greet Tasha.
"We all went running out the front door," Elyssa said. "That's the first time we'd smiled since Christmas Eve."
The dog was still groggy from surgery, but managed to lick off the peanut butter they'd smudged on their hands to greet her.
"It was like bringing home a piece of my mom when we found her," Amanda said. "It's a miracle she was thrown from the car and was missing for six days and she had no broken bones. None of it makes sense. Everyone in the crash … it's amazing that they all didn't die."
Elyssa thinks Goss watched over Tasha for those six days "to make sure she'd come home to us."
Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/weston/fl-family-reunited-wth-dog-20120103,0,5760286.story
Video at: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/videogallery/67136791/News/family-reunited-with-dog-after-tragedy
No comments:
Post a Comment