Photo of Dog's Last Meal Brings Reddit Community to Tears

Lennox the Boxer may have lost the battle with cancer, but he got the dish of his dreams before heading to the Rainbow Bridge.

When you have to euthanize your beloved dog, you want all the snuggles and playtime you can get. But you have to think, what does the dog want? One man who had a cancer-ridden Boxer named Lennox knew exactly what his dog wanted: a turkey leg covered in bacon, laid on a pillow of rice next to two fat sausages and (from the looks of it) a solid hunk of bread. 

An epic last meal, in other words. 

Reddit user Nikolaoss posted a photo of the feast to the site yesterday, and it tore up the rankings (along with a few Redditors -- many comments about crying in the comments). Later he posted further explanation. Lennox was his roommate's dog, who had reached the end of his battle with cancer. 

"He has severe cancer and arthritis," he wrote. "After many surgeries, which include a tumor on his left ear which you can see had surgery on. Now there is a huge growth on his left shoulder that you can see in the pic, he can barely walk on that side, and barely gets up anymore." 

Nickolaoss also included a video. Lennox enjoyed his last meal very much, it seems. Watch for yourself: 

Many Redditors expressed sympathy for the dog and shared their own stories. One user, soapage, had this to say:  

"Well Nikolaoss tell your roomate for me this: I know a lot of people here don't believe in heaven, but I think we all believe there is somewhere to go. He shall be put to sleep and his suffering will pass. In an instant his energy will burst out of his body with all the love that has been poured on him for years and it will be free. Most likely he will chase some squirrels and visit the cosmos, but I am pretty sure most of the time he will stick around with his human ... waiting the exact moment to greet him with a nice face lick on the other side."

In another post, Nikolaoss thanked the community for its compassion. "Thanks for all the comments, my roommate appreciates it a lot. This post isn't meant to be sad in any way. He lived like an absolute boss all his life! And the meal reflects that!"

Lennox was put to sleep on Wednesday. Nickolaoss said he passed away peacefully. 

Via the Huffington Post

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Brutus vs. Sock Brutus 1 – Sock 0

Now that I have finally caught my breath and calmed down I can share the “excitement” we had here on Tuesday.

Had a very scary day with Brutus.  The morning started out with him throwing up his breakfast.  Then two more vomiting bouts with the remainder of his breakfast.  Oh joy!  Bloat is of course going through my mind at this point.  Cleaned that up and he started going down hill from there FAST.

He threw up some water and headed outside to vomit again and collapsed in the most horrific fashion.  I will never get that image out of my mind.  I literally thought he had a heart attack and was dead laying there.  I absolutely freaked!!!  Stark raving screaming freak out.  I re-positioned his head and straightened out his legs and then he held his head up.  I helped him stand and he wandered back inside a little dazed, but far from dead.

He climbed under my desk and was very uncomfortable.  He started having some labored breathing. At that point I’m on the phone trying to get help from my husband to get him to the emergency vet.  He starts profusely drooling and I know hes about to get sick again.  We head out on the deck and he pukes up a ton of water AND a SOCK, a freaking SOCK!!!!!!!!!  WTF that dog has never eaten anything other than food before!

Immediately he starts wagging his tail and I just collapse on him bawling.  He came back in made himself comfortable in front of the fan.  He had rice and chicken for dinner and ate with gusto and seemed to be completely back to himself with in 2 hours.  I think I aged 10 years that day.

I was absolutely sick about it.  Thank goodness for happy endings.  Morale of the story… never, ever take it for granted that your dog wont get into something they shouldn’t.  And make sure your teenager picks up their socks!

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Dig This Video: Nathan the Hairless Dog Is a Dancing King

The Chinese Crested rescue dog has a great crew behind him, too. Your move, Kanye.

Have you ever seen a hairless dog flanked by three of his crew getting down to Madonna's "4 Minutes" in a rocking office chair?  

No? What's wrong with you? Have a look: 

Now go watch the video here.

This dog is down with it, no? And his posse -- Crazy Hair on the left, Not Having It over the shoulder, and Eyebrows sort of hunched behind the rocking office chair, the way he does -- that's a fine-looking crew, dead ringers for about 100 people in 1984's Breakin', which is where all the great crews come from.

And Nathan, on the rocking office chair -- do you know that Nathan dances better than 85 percent of people at weddings, 95 percent of people at any given Red Lobster, and 100 percent of Ellen's studio audience? 

We know this because we Nathan and the Furious Three were featured on the show: 

Nathan's video has predictably struck a chord with Internet users -- "Hey, that dog has more game than me!" -- going viral and bringing scads of much-needed attention to the rescue Bald Is Beautiful, out of Greenville, SC, which takes in primarily hairless and small-breed dogs and finds them homes.  

Nathan, who is identified as a Chinese Crested on the Bald Is Beautiful website, was a hard case, the group reports Facebook. After his owner died in 2008, he was left in her home with all of her other dogs for a week. Another rescue took him in but failed to place the dog.   "He was moved to several homes over the next few years," writes BIB, "and apparently no one was willing or able to keep Nathan for more than a year before moving him on."

In 2011, Nathan ended up at Bald Is Beautiful. The group placed him with a foster home, where they discovered his fear of men. 

"Nathan was an unusual case in that he required ongoing training to address his issues. Part of this process includes changing behavior, but also minimizing triggers and helping the dog find success where it is possible."

After another failed placement, his foster mom realized "he was happier at her home than anywhere else he'd been before," so she adopted him. Nathan has been a joy ever since. 

As for his dancing, well, yeah, he's scratching his back. But it's so much more than that. 

"This dancing behavior is something he started on his own and now does on command for lots of praise from his mom, and treats, too," writes BIB.

And that crew? "Well, they know the drill. When Mom says, 'Wiggle it!' they all line up behind the green chair and wait. When it's over, everyone gets treats!" 

Two of Nathan's crew are his brothers, but Not Having It is up for adoption. His real name is Diamond; check out his profile here.

And check him out here with Al Roker:

Photos via Bald Is Beautiful's Facebook

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RAGD interviewed by Toxic Free Talk Radio!

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Indy the Pit Bull -- Hurt by a Sadistic Act Involving Fireworks -- Finds a Happy Ending

A vet tech who helped him recover from injuries sustained on July 4 offers him a new home.

Happy endings sometimes seem in short supply, especially in cases of animal abuse, so this one is very welcome. After months of treatment and recovery, a Pit Bull who made the news last year after someone strapped fireworks to his body and lit them, has found a new forever home.

Indy (short for Independence) was part of a particularly sadistic kind of Fourth of July  celebration last year. He was discovered in an alley in Van Nuys, California, on July 5, 2013, with more than half his body covered with third-degree burns. To this day, no one knows where Indy came from, or who tied fireworks to his body and legs. It's possible that we never will.

But we do know that this week, he went to a new home, adopted by one of the veterinary technicians who looked after him at the Westlake Village Animal Hospital. Jenny Mandel, who officially adopted Indy, wasn't working at the hospital when he first came in, but for months she has made a habit of coming to see him every morning when she came in. In November, she decided to adopt him.

"You can't not love a dog like that, so every day it was just more love, more love, and then finally he became a momma's boy. I became a doggy's girl," she told NBC.

It has been a very long and painful journey for Indy to get to his new home. NBC reports that his treatment involved "at least four skin grafts and surgeries."

The volunteers and staff who have cared for Indy during that time understand that journey better than anyone. Just after his recovery was announced in November, volunteer Allison Polumbus said, "It's really hard to see an animal in this kind of pain. We saw him without the bandages. It's horrific, it's gory, and you can't even imagine the pain he's in."

The scars from Indy's trauma are going to last for a long time, but everyone says that he has remained loving and affectionate the whole time. At his new home, at least he'll be assured of getting some of that love back.

I have to admit to a certain sentimental attachment to this story. I grew up in Westlake Village, where Indy has been recovering. It's an affluent suburb about 40 miles north of Los Angeles. I went to two high schools in the area and hated almost every minute I lived there. I was glad when I finally escaped to go to college in the 1990s, because I knew from an early age that I wouldn't get any happy endings there. I'm glad that I got out when I did, but I'm also glad that Indy, at least, found his happy ending in Westlake.

Via Life With Dogs and NBC

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P.L.A.Y joins the Raise A Green Dog Partner Pack!

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Dempsey the Boxer Survives Nine Freezing Days Outside in Maine Only to Be Hit by a Car

He went 10 rounds in subzero woods and then got knocked flat by a car, but this fighter survived.

Dempsey the Boxer was named after the boxer Jack Dempsey, so you have to assume that this little guy is not going to go down without a fight. 

And last week, he was in the fight of his life: nine days alone in subzero temperatures, and then he gets hit by a car.  

It started a couple of weeks ago, when Dempsey and his owner Jamie Cyrway visited her parents' house in Maine -- a very cold Maine. Dempsey, for reasons known only to Dempsey, jumped a six-foot fence in the backyard and aced into the woods. Those woods were freezing. Dempsey was an out-of-town Boxer, unused to such conditions. It didn't look good. The family immediately started searching, offering a reward, putting up signs around the neighborhood and on Facebook.

“We went out on snow shoes,” Janet Boothby, Cyrway’s mother, told CBS News. “We went out at night. We took my dog on trails. Jamie and I went through the woods. We had scent stations set up.”

They did everything they could, in short. But still no Dempsey. Eventually, Cyrway, who is a single parent with three kids, had to get back to Maryland for work. She left with her kids, but her family continued the search. 

The days continued to pass, but they didn't give up hope. 

"Jamie and I never gave up on him," Boothby told WMTM.com. "We said, 'Until we have proof Dempsey is gone by being dead or something, we’re not going to give up. Because if we give up, he will die and we weren’t going to do that."

Then, nine days later, a break in the case. A man told others he hit a dog near a farm in the area where Dempsey vanished. Christine Pierce, who heard about Dempsey on Facebook but didn't know the dog, thought she'd go check it out. 

She found tracks in the snow, which led into a shed. She followed them and found Dempsey, who looked "horrible" and "skinny." 

“He wasn’t moving, and when I saw him, I said, 'Dempsey, I found you. I can’t believe I found you,'" Pierce said. “He kind of opened his eyes a little bit and then I knew he was alive. I scooped him up and put him in the back of my vehicle and called his owner Jamie and said, 'I found your dog.'"

Pierce took him straight to Madison Animal Hospital. Dempsey had a broken leg, he had lost weight, his heart rate had dropped, and he was having seizures, but he was alive. 

According to Dr. Darren Richards, Pierce found Dempsey in the nick of time. 

“It’s really a miracle. Nine days in the subzero temperatures that we had, and he’s not a very big dog, so he’s lucky,” Richards said. "I think when she found him, he was probably within an hour or two of dying.” 

Dempsey is recovering from surgery to fix his leg, and he's been reuinted with Cyrway. Her mother praised the community for helping them find the dog.

“We had so many people looking, so many people helping us look. So many people putting food out. People are good people,” Boothby said. “At church, our opening prayer was for Dempsey on Sunday morning, so Dempsey touched the hearts of many, many lives.”

Via CBS News

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Is your dog's shampoo safe?

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Nobody Puts Blaze the Husky into His Kennel

In this video, the big, relaxed, sleepy puppy is very polite about it, but he makes it clear: NO!

John Ventresco's video of his 11-month-old Husky (named Blaze) resisting going into his kennel, is getting a lot of "Awww" around the Internet, and for good reason. We've all been there, whether we have four legs or two. At some point, you just become very satisfied with the place you're in, and when someone comes along to rouse you for dinner, television, or just moving from your spot on the couch to a proper bed for the night, you just want to stay where you are.

For the most part, Blaze is vocal but polite about not wanting to leave his comfy spot. Every time an attempt is made to rouse him, he makes a kind of doggy grunt indicating that he just doesn't want to go.

Blaze's courtesy is one thing that's been commented on a lot as his video circulates. He's kind of become the canine Bartleby of the Internet -- in Herman Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener, the title character responds to work requests from his employer by saying only "I would prefer not to." So, maybe Blaze isn't just cute; think of him as an easy way to educate your kids on classic American literature.

While YouTube's "annotate" feature is one of those things that posters sometimes use to crank their obnoxiousness up to 11, here it just brings out the adorableness. The feature translates Blaze's moans of protest into a definitive "No." It's certainly more accurate than the automatic transcript produced by YouTube's servers, which nevertheless are a great bonus source of surrealistic humor. According to YouTube, the conversation between Blaze and his humans goes something like this:

0:00 thinks I'm going to tell mom month
0:04 whom more mmm
0:07 where my
0:11 I'm I'm
0:14 sand or gravel an all-time
0:18 a whole time Mike
0:22 mom and cool harm
0:26 call please and
0:30 home well month ago
0:33 warm Mike girl
0:00 thinks I'm going to tell mom month

I guarantee that's not what's being said, either by Blaze or the humans, but check it out for yourself below.

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Tubby has a nose for recycling. Follow his lead!

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Happy Thanksgiving to our RAGD pals!

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Will your dog's food be frankeninfished?

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A Super Sunday Dog Event: The Bill Foundation's Rescue Bowl

The organization plans to live-stream an adoption event that pits Shelter Dogs vs. Street Dogs.

How many of you tuned into the Bill Foundation's live stream adoption event?

Always searching for new ways to help dogs in need, the rescue organization did something never done before: The Bill Foundation live-streamed its weekend adoption event in Los Angeles. Viewers were treated to streaming footage of wiggly, waggily dogs in need of forever homes as volunteers narrated their individual stories. Thanks to contributions from Ustream and Logitech, the event was a tremendous success, drawing more than 30,000 viewers as well as a deluge of adoption applications. Adoptions haven't been finalized yet (it's a long, thorough process), but it looks like 9 or 10 of the pups will be going to their forever homes.

Check out the recorded video below.

Now the foundation plans its first Rescue Bowl. Twenty to 25 adoptable dogs will get to play in a game of Shelter Dogs vs. Street Dogs. The dogs will be dressed in jerseys, and there will even be cheerleaders to rally their spirits. It's scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 3, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. If you're interested in watching the Super Bowl, you can still do that -- it starts at 3:30 p.m. Pacific, 6:30 p.m. Eastern.

You can watch the Rescue Bowl here for free, but you can also donate $5 to vote for you favorite team. All donations go to the Bill Foundation's continued rescue efforts.

The group plans to announce the starting lineup Saturday on its Facebook page; it'll also announce the "winning" team there Monday. There's even talk of a trophy and perhaps an exciting halftime show. 

Photo: Golden Retriever with star sunglasses on football by Shutterstock

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Part 1: The ultimate laundry guide for the green dog!

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Lucy, the World's Smallest Working Dog, Is a Rescue Sucess

See cute photos of the Yorkie who holds the Guinness World Record as a therapy dog.

So after the bummer news on Thursday, we all kind of sat around in shock. Then the Dogster team decided, "Aw fluff it, let's go get lunch." So we did. After lunch, we had a group hug. And me, being the shortest of the group, got everyone's armpit in my face. Fortunately, everyone had remembered to wear deodorant. (Yours truly, however ... )

You might call me the "smallest employee of Dogster," and then Lucy the Yorkie and I would have something in common. Lucy is the Guinness World Record holder of Smallest Working Dog. The pint-size rescue is a certified therapy animal, AKC Good Canine Citizen, and certified caring hospice volunteer.

But Lucy's story almost didn't have such a happy ending! Lucy was one of a few dogs her former owner was trying desperately to rehome, going so far as taking the dogs door to door to see if anyone would adopt them. She walked into the shop in which the person who would become her new owner, Sally, was working; however, Lucy was hidden in a carrier. Sally asked to see Lucy, and the woman resisted -- Lucy was tiny and sickly with dirty, matted fur. But once Sally saw the pup, that was that. She took the dog, unsure of what would happen next except that she'd just made a promise. Fortunately, it all worked out well, and after some grooming and a trip to the vet, the little dog perked right up, and now gives back to her community.

Even though she is tiny, Lucy brings tremendous joy to the people and patients she works with, performing agility tricks that, at least for a little while, distract people from whatever might be ailing them. And for people like me, she's an inspiration, a reminder that even the smallest among us can do great, great things.

And anyway! There are benefits to being petite, such as:

Okay, sometimes the styles are a little childish, but hey! They're almost always cheaper!

And that includes plane seats!

It's cuddly warm in there!

Yay! Sunshine!

And when you lose just, like, a pound, you look great!

All photos via Lucy's Facebook page -- go check it out and tell her that Dogster sent you!

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About Liz Acosta: Dogster's former Cuteness Correspondent, Liz still manages the site's daily "Awws," only now she also wrangles Dogster's social media. That's why she wants you to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and -- her personal favorite -- Instagram. See ya there!

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About Time! Westminster Dog Show Allows Mixed-Breed Dogs

For the first time in the show's 138-year history, the club makes room for All American Dogs (that's what the club calls mutts, by the way).

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show has been going on for more than a century, and in every one of the events the doors have been slammed shut on dogs whose only crime is a bloodline that is impure, that forked here and there along the way, that might have hit a brick wall decades back thanks to a frisky Pug who snuck in the back door one fine summer day. 

Mixed-breed dogs. Mutts. Puggles. Labradoodles. Shelter dogs. Happy dogs. After 138 years, all of them, down to the last unidentifiable fella, have finally been allowed entry into the most prestigious dog show in the world. 

The American Kennel Club calls them "All American Dogs." We kind of like that. 

But it's through the side door, to be sure. The mixed-breed dogs get to enter only one event -- the agility trials, which take place at Pier 94 in Manhattan next month. And only 16 out of the field of 228 are mixed breed, according to the New York Times. 

The agility event, which emphasizes speed and accuracy, precedes the dog show's "pageant of dogs," which prizes dogs conforming to breed standard. 

Think of it as the wild pre-party before the formal party.

Club President Sean McCarthy said that adding the agility competition was a way to “make sure we show all aspects of what dogs can do; they’re good-looking, skillful, and talented.”

"Westminster is a celebration of all the dogs in our lives, and that includes mixed-breed dogs," said Thomas Bradley, the show's chairman, according to the Chicago Tribune.

In agility, dogs race around poles, through tunnels and tires, up and down ramps and seesaws, and they jump like crazy. At the more formal dog show, in contrast, the purebred pooches barely get a lap in. 

"It's so exciting," Irene Palmerini told the Chicago Tribune.

She bought Alfie, a fluffy, black-and-white dog, for $99 from her local pet shop. He's entered into the event. 

“He likes to jump, he loves tunnels and he likes the teeter,” she said. “Agility’s been good for him and made a better bond between us.”

Nice work, Westminster. Next year we can expect to see them in the ring, right?

Fox Sports 1 broadcasts the agility trial live from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8, with commentary by former Olympic diver Greg Louganis.

Via New York Times; photos via WKC Dog Show's Facebook

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A Dog Meme Will Get Jamaica's Bobsled Team to the Olympics

It's crowdsourcing for a good cause -- Internet currency based on Doge called (duh!) Dogecoin.

For the most part, memes are not my favorite aspect of the Internet. As humor, they wear out for me very fast. It's somewhat like being at a party and having one person after another walk up and tell you the same joke, each one of them convinced that they are being clever and witty. Usually, the joke wasn't that funny to begin with, but after the 50th time or so, it's all you can do to make your mouth twitch in a token impression of a smile, rather than braining them with the nearest potted plant.

I should mention at this point that I don't get invited to many parties.

But here's a case in which a meme was made to serve good, rather than evil. Thanks to a fusion of Internet currency with a cute dog meme and crowdfunding, the Jamaican bobsled team will be able to go to the Winter Olympics in Sochi this year.

Dogecoin is an Internet currency that's kind of a rebranded, cuter version of Bitcoin. The logo of Dogecoin is based on the "Doge" meme, which is kind of like the canine equivalent of LOLCAT pictures, which is to say that it can be adorable or annoying, depending on your mood. The meme features broken English words written in Comic Sans font on a picture of Kabosu, a Shiba Inu dog. Some media figures declared it "dead" in December, when Republican legislators started tweeting Doge pictures to attack the Affordable Care Act and budget spending.

However, the success of Dogecoin's crowdfunding campaign for the Jamaican Bobsled Team shows that there may be some life in the old meme yet. On Saturday, Winston Watt and Marvin Dixon learned that they had qualified to compete in the Olympic Games. But the happy news came with some bitter: They didn't have the money to go. So naturally, they did what everyone does in the 21st century: They turned to the Internet.

One of the people who heard the plea was Liam Butler, head of the Dogecoin Foundation. Butler has been a fan since he saw the film Cool Runnings as a kid.

"As someone who grew up in the '90s, Cool Runnings was the ultimate feel-good movie about underdogs out of their element achieving their dreams," he told UPI. "When I was about seven years old, my best friend and I had a billy-cart that his dad built. When we would start our run down his driveway, we would shout out the catchphrase from the movie: 'Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it's bobsled time!'"

With those memories in mind, Butler and the Dogecoin Foundation started up a campaign called Dogesled to send Watt and Dixon to the Olympics. It succeeded in a way that they couldn't have imagined. Not only did the Dogesled campaign raise more than $25,000 in real cash for the team, the value of Dogecoin shot up 50 percent within 12 hours.

"We started without a concrete plan in mind," Butler said. "I sent a few emails out … but that was the extent of it."

Plan or not, the result is that the Jamaican Bobsled Team will be going to Sochi to compete. Jamaican Olympic officials and the Sochi Organizing Committee have said that they will cover Watt and Dixon's transport expenses, but the donations will still be used for equipment and training. It looks like cute dog pictures and a little good will really can take you a long way.

Via Los Angeles Times

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It's #GivingTuesday: Ways you can help dogs in need this holiday season!

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A Poodle Named Dream Adopts an Aussie Puppy in Need

Dream already had one puppy of her own, but when another turned up at the rescue needing a mother, she brought her into her family.

A four-year-old Poodle named Dream turned up in an overcrowded shelter in the high desert near Lancaster, California -- dirty, matted, and skinny. Shelter workers labeled her a stray. They didn't even know she was pregnant, but she was, and she gave birth to two tiny puppies on Dec. 2. 

One died right away. The other fought to survive, as Dream, so sickly herself, did her best to nurse him. The pair needed to get out of that shelter and get some real help, and that's when a kind soul spotted Dream and her puppy and pegged them for transfer to the Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe, California. 

It was there her life would change. Not only did Dream and her puppy -- staff named her Cupcake -- get placed in a great foster home right away, but Dream gained a new reason to live: Candy, an Aussie mix puppy who was having a rough go at life. 

On Jan. 10, not long after Dream and Cupcake found their foster home, the Helen Woodward center brought in a mother Aussie mix named Karly and her seven puppies. One of them, Candy, was tiny compared with the rest. She had been getting trampled, struggling to get her mother's milk, and she was left stunted, weak, dehydrated, covered in bite wounds, and suffering from a nasal infection. 

The center's veterinarian, Stephanie Oba, took Candy in, fostering her separately and giving her round-the-clock care. She would get better, but she still needed one thing. She needed a mother. 

Someone on the staff had an idea: What about Dream? Her puppy Cupcake was Candy's age. And the pups looked nearly alike, despite one having a Poodle mom. What if Dream accepted Candy as her own?

Foster Pam Fleischman agreed. Dream met Candy, and immediately took her in. She treated Candy as "though she were the baby she had lost," reports the center.  

“Dream has been an amazingly good mother," said Fleischman. "She is content to spend most of her time lounging with Cupcake and Candy and attentively caring for them. We’re looking forward to seeing how the puppies’ personalities develop during the next month. They are both angels and immediately became the best of friends.” 

This story had a happy ending, but it's not over. Cupcake and Candy will soon need their own homes. The two dogs will be fixed in a few weeks and will be ready to be adopted after that, according to the center. If you're interested, please contact the Adoptions Department at 858-756-4117 (ext. 1) or visit the Helen Woodward Animal Center. 

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Big Fluffy Dog Rescue Tells a Harsh Tale of a Hit and Run

Revlon escaped from her Nashville foster home and was found on the interstate. Surgery is next.

Big Fluffy Dog Rescue, a nonprofit from Nashville, Tennessee, posted an extremely intense and emotional account of their work with a single dog on their Facebook last night. While it's perhaps not an unusual story -- or at least not as unusual as most of us would like -- it does say a lot about the challenges of providing humane support for dogs in a society that's less and less willing to take care of its own.

The post is about Revlon, a dog that Big Fluffy had rescued, and who then escaped from her foster home. The people at Big Fluffy hit the streets and the social networks trying to find Revlon. They were met by a lot of helpful and compassionate people, with one exception: "To the one useless jackass who called and said he hoped she was squashed out flat on the highway, you can suck it and I sincerely wish you pain and suffering."

Despite the willingness of most people to help, there was no sign of Revlon until yesterday morning, when the author reports that dozens of people called in, flooding her with the same piece of bad news: Revlon had been struck by a hit-and-run driver on Interstate 40.

She had part of steel radial tire fragment embedded in her foot and she has possibly the worst blunt force trauma injury to her left hip and femur I've ever seen. Her right hip is dislocated and will have to be pinned and she will be in a wheelchair for several weeks while she heals. We will fix her and she is slated for surgery as soon as the plates that can repair her damaged hips arrive.

Revlon is alive because a woman stopped immediately when she saw the dog get struck and go flying. Despite the intense trauma, the dog dragged herself across three lanes of traffic, with a little help from humans on the scene:

To the man who found an orange cone to help keep traffic away, I say thank you. To the policeman who helped, thank you as well. This dog is alive because of all of you. To Shannon who put this dog in your car and drove her to the vet, you are my hero and I thank you. While it grieves me that the person who hit this dog did not bother to stop or even slow down to look, it comforts me that people cared enough to help one poor dog get out of harm's way.

As I say, the story itself is not that remarkable. After all, many dogs get struck by cars every day, and many don't make it to safety or have a human nearby who can help them to a veterinarian. But the directness and emotion of the account is a good reminder of what dog rescue workers go through on a regular basis. Just like the author, they're in the work because they care about and love these animals, and it can be a wrenching job whether you're a volunteer or paid staff.

And in the case of Revlon, it's an expensive one, too. The Big Fluffy staffer writes that the dog will need at least two or three surgeries, as well as a dog wheelchair to help her with mobility during recovery. That's probably going to come to $5,000 to $10,000:

She will have to endure two and probably three surgeries to repair the damage. If you look closely, you can see the lines where she got nailed by a bumper and you will understand just how lucky this dog is. The left hip is broken in four places and will be plated to provide pain relief and stability. Then we'll deal with the femur and knee. The right hip will be pinned. She won't be able to stand on her own so we'll be investing in a wheelchair while the breaks heal up.

For anyone who wants to help Big Fluffy Dog Rescue with Revlon's expenses, or with their work in general, donations can be made online.

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