Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Our Hero


We had a big scare out the farm Tuesday. I stepped out into the garage to go to my car and saw Rex sleeping at the edge of the concrete. About four feet from him was a rattle snake (which also was positioned right in front of my car). I tried to quietly call to Rex to get him in the house. He woke up, looked at me, and started for the door. At the same time the snake started to rattle, which Rex being the extremely protective dog that he is, decided to attack the snake. Unfortunately, the rattle snake struck him in the face. Luckily, my dad was near by and came over and shot the snake. John was almost home when all this took place, so he and my dad rushed Rex to the vet. John said Rex did really well the whole way there, but once inside, his face swelled up to the size of a basketball and he had a seizure. They immediately gave him anti-venom and pain killers.


He had to stay overnight and I went by to see him yesterday morning. I knew he wasn't going to look good but I had no idea how bad. His head was huge, his eyes were swollen shut, and his gums were black from the venom and bruising. He still was his usual sweet self - wagged his tail when he heard me. Fortunately, one of our family friends works there and she and the vet came in to make me feel better about the situation. They said he's out of the woods but has a long recovery process ahead of him.


I didn't take any pictures of him because it was just too sad. Maybe once he comes home in a few days and the swelling goes down, I'll take some. So for now here's what our sweet Mr. Rex normally looks like.

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