friend's best friend

many years ago a friend of mine told me a story which i thought quite touching. it seems like a nice way to kick off the year.

one of my seniors in surgery had a dog that meant a lot to him. he lavished it with love and attention and they were inseparable. he had trained the dog to obey him implicitly. in fact it was so well trained that he would often go for walks with it without a leash. one word from him and the dog would stick to his leg like glue. this was one of those walks.

my friend and his best friend were out walking. it was a quiet day so my friend would send his dog out far ahead. he would then shout the command for it to stop and wait. he would then either leisurely catch up to the dog or give the command for it to return to him. then he sent the dog ahead again, but this time didn't notice the dog would be crossing a street. as the dog was half way across the street my friend saw a truck barreling down at full speed towards the dog. he panicked and, instead of shouting for the dog to return, just screamed the dog's name. the dog stopped dead in his tracks, right in the middle of the street...and was run down.

soon the dog was at the vet. most of the injuries were to the leg, but they were bad. so bad in fact that the vet said only an amputation would suffice. she then added that this breed of dog didn't do too well with an amputation because they needed to run around a lot or they became depressed and lost the will to live. she suggested euthanasia. my friend was devastated, but he agreed that the dog would not do well without a leg. he consented.

just before the injection he went through to his faithful old friend to say goodbye, but when the dog looked up at him and, despite the pain wagged its tail and smiled he knew he could not just stand by. he asked the vet if she could anaesthetise the dog. he would do the rest. he then drove to the hospital where he was training, walked into theater and pretty much stole all the orthopaedic plates and screws he thought he would need. not too long afterwards he was drilling and hammering and doing the things bone doctors do, but on his dog. somehow he got it all together, although he had to sacrifice the articulation of the wrist. a stiff wrist was better than no wrist.

and so the dog recovered and went on to have a full and happy dog life.

p.s i'm not condoning the stealing of all the hardware but when i confronted him about that he pointed out that the hospital had refused to pay him overtime well in excess of the value of the items stolen and, he said, he could therefore live with it.