Help! Stray Dog, Hit by Car, Urgently Needs Surgery

By Leslie Brown

Three weeks ago, my 17-year-old son Keenan called me on his way home from school. "Mom, I just saw a dog get hit by a car,” he said, sounding anxious. “What do I do?"

I grabbed his godfather, Derek, and we rushed over to Piedmont Avenue, behind the Los Angeles Public Library in Highland Park, and assessed the situation. Keenan had seen the dog heading toward the street as a woman was driving by and hit him. The dog then scuttled under a nearby parked car to hide in fear. The immediate task was to get the dog out from his hiding place under the parked car, and take him to the nearest Animal Shelter.

Local neighbors helped Derek jack up the car to get him out. The woman who had hit the poor pup stayed around to see that we were able to get him out. Unfortunately we never got her contact information to ask her for help with locating the owners, nor covering vet bills.

The North Central Animal Shelter on Lacy Street took one look at the dog, and suggested that the cost of care would be too high, and he would have to be put down. He had no tags, no collar, and no microchip. And now he had a bum leg.

But the prospect of euthanasia was too emotional for any of us to consider. So we took on the expenses ourselves, in hopes that we could find the pup's owner by posting flyers in the area. Keenan named the dog Buster—because he got "busted" up. We posted flyers, promoted on Facebook, and Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch published articles to help get the word out. But still no one came forward to claim him.

A visit to the Eagle Rock Emergency Pet Clinic, followed by several visits to other vets, including Gateway Animal Hospital in Los Feliz, and several more hundred dollars later, and we started to run out of funds.  With the upcoming surgery, the total cost of care will be close to $2,500.  

We are out of pocket close to $1,300 on this ourselves.  And although Keenan is ready to spend his own $700 from his savings, we are now reaching out to the community to see if friends and neighbors can help cover the remaining $1,000 cost of his much needed surgery to amputate the front right leg, plus follow-up medicine.  And then, we hope to find a loving home to adopt him.

Keenan (or Leslie) can be reached at (323) 929-3103.

Click here to help out—or go to PlumFund: http://www.plumfund.com/pf/Buster