Of All the Luck

Our beautiful dog, Zorro, before his first accident.

 

Of All the Luck

 

Back in the days before memes and emails and the internet…heck, even before home computers, there were photocopies of cute or funny things that people passed around.  They were shared with friends, coworkers, potential customers, etc.

One that was always good for a chuckle looked like something you’d find posted around the neighborhood on community poster boards and thumb-tacked to telephone poles, etc.  At the top it read, “Lost Dog” in big letters.  It continued to describe the missing hound, “3 legs, blind in one eye, missing right ear, tail broken, recently castrated…, answers to the name, ‘Lucky’.”

Well, we have our own “Lucky”.

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Zorro was brought home by our son, Travis, who acquired the Burmese Mountain Dog cross from a friend.  He may be a cross but I’ll bet there’s not one person in a million who can tell he’s not pure blooded.  Well, that is, they wouldn’t have thought so when he first reached maturity.  The big, beautiful, long-haired dog was the picture of perfection.  He stood tall and strong, the master of all he surveyed.

Then came his first “accident”.

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One of my neighbors (call him Neighbor One) phoned to tell me Neighbor Two had caught Zorro eating one of One’s goats and tried to shoot the alleged livestock killer.  I haven’t talked to Two about the situation but I don’t bear him any bad feelings because livestock farmers have a right to protect their animals, and neighbors in the country look out for each other.

However, I can’t help but think Two was mistaken.  You see, the night before the shooting I had heard a pack of coyotes yipping and howling.  The sounds were those a pack makes when it has a kill and is enjoying it as a group.  I even remember thinking that the sounds were coming from up near Two’s house, and wondering if he could see the activities.

Coyotes have been known to kill and eat dogs so it occurred to me that it could have been one of ours.  I checked.  All of our pups were present and accounted for.  The next night is when Zorro got shot.

Like coyotes, dogs won’t pass up a free meal.  I have to wonder if what Two had seen was Zorro doing what dogs do and taking advantage of a dead critter.  I mentioned my question to Neighbor One and he assured me that Neighbor Two had been positive of Zorro’s guilt.

Still, I have to wonder.

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Zorro disappeared after the shooting so I assumed he’d been killed by what I’d been told was most likely a fatal head shot.  However, a few days later, the dog came home, looking somewhat the worse for wear.  Appearing chagrined, he let me examine him.  I found that an infection had set in inside his sinus area.  We took him to the veterinarian who prescribed a course of antibiotics.  The meds did their job but the shotgun pellets had evidently nicked something because Zorro’s right eye soon turned dull and sightless.  Also, there was some scar tissue buildup in his nasal passages because his nose is noticeably crooked.  If you stand nearby after he has been running you can hear his breath wheezing through the deformed nasal passages.

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A couple months ago Zorro disappeared again for about a week.  When he showed back up he seemed to feel less than 100%.  Thinking it was lack of food, I did a quick check before heading off to work.  Later Patrick noticed that the hair was falling out of his tail and the appendage smelled bad.

Bad as in rotten.

Annie took the unhappy dog for another visit to the vet.  Doc told us that the big dog was evidently not big enough to catch the eye of one of the speeding vehicles that barrels along our road.  He had been “rear-ended”, breaking his beautiful tail, crushing the blood vessels and effectively killing it.  According to Doc, Zorro would die if he did not immediately amputate the dead tail and there was a good chance he wouldn’t make it anyway.

Yes, it was that bad.

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A few days later, our hard-luck pup was home again.  What was formerly a gorgeous tail with long, jet black hair that wagged wildly to welcome us home was now a sad-looking stump that seeped “juice”.  He brought along a big bottle of antibiotic pills and instructions to see to it he finished the whole bottle of them.  The first morning I pried open his cavernous maw and shoved a pill down his throat to get it past his tongue.  Then I held his mouth shut so he had no choice but to swallow the medicine.  I’m pretty sure he didn’t like the process any more than I did, so I came up with a smarter procedure.

We had some old hotdogs that were ready to be fed to the dogs anyway.  I broke one in half lengthwise and poked one of Zorro’s pills in, then tossed it to him.  It worked!  He gobbled the ‘dog down and the medicine with it.

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Every summer Annie gets our long-haired dogs shaved, so Zorro got a haircut a few weeks back.  With his coat trimmed short the tail didn’t stand out as much.  Then, once his pale skin had tanned a bit he actually started looking better.  The tail-stub healed up nicely and now he looks good.  It remains to be seen how he’ll look in his natural state when his hair grows back out for the winter, but I’m already calling his recovery a success.

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Despite all he’s been through, Zorro remains the happy dog he’s always been.  He still greets us with a wagging tail…uh, twitching stump.  He still dances with excitement when we talk or act playful.

You see, Zorro doesn’t lie around crying about his lost vision.  He doesn’t whine about losing his tail.  He doesn’t moan about his compromised breathing due to his scarred and deformed nose.

No, Zorro doesn’t curse his bad luck.  If fact, he seems to consider himself fortunate.

Hmmm, don’t you think Zorro “Lucky” Matthews has a nice ring to it?

 

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(above) The original poster of the mythical, “Lucky”.

(below) Zorro right after he had his tail amputated.

 

(below) Yep, that’s the truncated wagger.

4 Comments on "Of All the Luck"

  1. Great and lucky dog!!! I just hope he doesn’t add to those stories or test that luck!

  2. Travis Matthews | July 16, 2018 at 7:19 am |

    He was actually shot twice. The second one was the one that caused him to be blind. That shot went in, between the eyes and out behind the right eye. He also he almost got his leg cut off one night.

    • Scott Matthews | July 16, 2018 at 8:30 am |

      He got shot both times in one night though, right? I don’t remember him almost getting his leg cut off. How did that happen?

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