Freak Accident at the Dog Run/Your Help Needed

good evening dog community,

this weekend the unexpected happened -- a dog scaled the fence and was impaled by one of the spikes. thankfully there is a happy ending to this incident with someone helping from the street to get Dio back to the dog run side and the spike missing a major artery, you can read the details below.

YOUR HELP IS NEED to safeguard the run so this NEVER happens again:
* Help with a Clean-Up this Saturday March 14 at 10 am. One of the reasons Dio was able to make it over the fence was that the woods chips were so high are on the side especially in the corner nearest driggs and the small dog run. Come on Saturday and help pull the chips from the fence.

* Someone, or a few people talk, to Rich (has a Puggle named Chesty) and ask him to focus his dog run upkeep energy toward pulling the chips away from the fence especially the cornered mentioned.

* Or help figure out how to safeguard the spikes: One thought was to put tennis balls on all the spikes,
however after a little more thought, we concluded that this just make the spikes more appealing to some dogs and continue to be dangerous. We need to determine some way to cape the spikes. Another thought is to put black chair leg bumpers on each of the spike http://www.mclendons.com/item.asp?sku=10948400
Can someone investigate this idea? Or find a better solution. and share with the community.

I realize that one of best solutions would be to grind the spikes down but that is likely too expensive and would have to work through the parks department for approval and that can take forever.

Can't do any of these things but use the dog run every week...make a donation via our website www.mcdogrun.org and click on the ? button under Make a Donation heading on the right side of the website. We have $60 in the dog run kitty right now (not a lot of money).

And please spread the word about what happened last weekend and ask people to help on Saturday morning.

Thanks.

Christine

PS I spoke with Open Space Alliance/Parks Department about the new chain link fencing replace the snow fencing project and it looks like it might happen this spring. You may remember emails about this back in September.



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: elizabeth
Date: Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 5:36 PM
Subject: bad accident at the dog park
To: mcdogrun@gmail.com


Hello,

I got your email address from a man in the dog run
yesterday after my dog Dio had a death defying accident
in an attempt to jump out of the dog run.

It was yesterday morning at 11 am. Dio decided to jump the
fence to get a squirrel on the other side. I was standing
right by him and the next thing I knew he was in
mid-jump. His leg caught on one of the spikes and he was
impaled. The spike went in his stomach and out the back of
his leg and he was hanging by the leg over the fence on
the outside. I was trying to hold him up yelling for help
and a girl driving down driggs jumped out of her car and
pushed him up on the outside and we were able to lift him
off the ten inch spike and set him down inside the run.
That girl saved his life then she jumped back in her car
and drove off.

When I set him down he was in shock but standing up -
I rushed him in my friend's car to the vet on Berry and
N. 1st and they took him into emergency and operated on
him for almost two hours. The dr. said his main artery
was pumping in plain view and that the spike had missed
it by a hair and that he would certainly have not survived
if it hadn't have been just so. He said it was a miracle
that the spike hadn't lacerated the artery considering the profundity
of the wound. He was able to sew him up and he thinks
and hopes dio will be ok and that he'll recover without
infection. I can't tell you what a scary sight it was to
watch and I realize Dio was VERY lucky to have fallen
the way he did.

I wanted to tell you what happened to Dio and also to report
that the wood chips have built up so high in the corner
where he jumped - (the southwest corner), that the fence
is only about 3 to 3 1/2 ft. high - an easy jump for many dogs.

Actually the whole fence along driggs is really low now because
of the chips. I am SO afraid this will happen to another dog with
spring coming and all the squirrels running around. Dio isn't even a
big jumper - from the inside it looks easy but in mid-air when you
see that drop on the outside a dog might want to turn back like I
think Dio did and fall on those horrendous spikes! I'm dying just
thinking about it happening again.

I have some ideas about how we could fix it - by lashing
plywood to the fence so it would go above the spikes in
combination with digging out some of the wood chips.
Or maybe you guys have a better idea. I am happy
to help out with whatever you decide should happen. I think
we should act fast though so no one else suffers what Dio
is suffering now. Please let me know what I can do to help.

Thanks so much,

Elizabeth