Rochester, N.Y. – It really was awful what happened just off of Lake Rd. in Charlotte last Thursday.
Scooby, a happy-go-lucky pit bull, saw something across the street and lunged.
As his owner yanked on the leash, the leash snapped.
Jean Gottschalk was walking nearby and saw it all.
“The dog charged out into traffic in front of a car, the woman didn’t have a chance to stop, the dog twisted and rolled under the car,” Gottschalk said. “I really thought the dog was dead.”
Gottschalk, a dog lover, ran over to help.
“The dog owner was holding the dog, saying, ‘The dog is all I have, if anything happens to him, I don’t know what I’ll do,’” Gottschalk recalled.
Without hesitation, Gottschalk offered to drive them both to East Ridge Animal Hospital.
There, Dr. Gerald Balonek got to work.
“The big problem was getting air into his lungs,” Balonek said. “Through all the procedures, Scooby remained calm.”
Scooby’s recovery was swift and two days after he came in, Scooby was ready to go home.
Jean, while driving Scooby’s owner to the hospital to pick the dog up, told him the bill had been taken care of.
She had sent her friends an email describing what she had witnessed.
They, in turn, wanted to do something to help and asked me how to contribute.
"I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many people come together for one pet, individually like that," Balonek said.
“I’ve got some of the best friends in the world and that makes my Christmas a lot merrier,” she said.
Also contributing was the dog organization, All 4 Pets of Western New York.
If you’d like more information on this group, you can head to their website: www.all4petswny.org
