Neighbors helped find lost pet
It is important that people hear a “happy tail” on a missing dog story. One of our family pets (Drake, a 9-year-old, one-eyed English mastiff) came up missing Thursday afternoon during a thunderstorm. Drake is one of many dogs that suffer from a very real condition called thunderstorm phobia. He was a rescue of mine.
When he was 6 months old, his family of four mastiffs came to a shelter scheduled for euthanasia due to aggression issues. Drake had actually been sprung once when he was 6 months old by another family but soon lost an eye due to a neighbor child and a stick.
The family could not afford his vet bills for the eye amputation so returned him to the shelter.
So my husband and I then intervened, paid and got the eye removed properly at Dr. Geary’s, and then he became part of our pack at home.
He was known to our neighbors as the one-eyed beast.
The beast part was because as he got older and bigger, he weighed in at 200 pounds.
But back to the phobia. Drake has busted down doors, gates and anything else standing in his way to, in his mind, find safety from thunder and lightning. Our basement is his safe haven. But on Thursday my husband and I were at work when a storm hit Fayette County.
Drake was in the barn that day and ripped the door off the barn when a storm hit the area.
We got a phone call from one of our neighbors who told us he was out and on the move on East Riverside Road, so we both hurried home from work, but we could not locate him.
We went to all of our neighbors’ homes and without hesitation some had told us how they had walked him back home and sat with him for awhile trying to calm him, but soon he left again searching for a safe place from the black clouds. Others said they will join in on the search.
All of them without hesitation were helping the one eyed beast. Anyone else would have thought this was a missing child, and to me it was.
At 11 p.m., our wonderful neighbors were out with flashlights helping us search and calling his name. At midnight he was located.
Drake suffers from arthritis and hip dysplasia and couldn’t walk anymore. He had gone to lay down along side of a hill next to one neighbor’s house and fell down the hill.
Not only could he not see to get up, but now his legs stopped working. To make a long story short, Drake was rescued after many long hours, returning home very tired and sore, but indeed returning home.
My neighbors all deserve “neighbors of the year” awards. They are the greatest.
So to all you families on East Riverside Road in Luzerne Township, a very big thank-you for all your help, love and compassion for animals.
Robin Moore
East Riverside Road