Admittedly, we have been a bit lazy about letting Sniper off leash lately. Since we don't have a door that opens directly into the fenced in part of our yard, the alternative is to walk Sniper out on a leash, wait while she does her thing, and then bring her back inside. Sometimes this is long and inconvenient, especially when the kids are waiting/eating/crying/killing each other inside. So, as Sniper proved her maturity by peeing and coming directly back in, we have let her go outside on her own.
Lately, she has been wandering over to the neighbors yard. This is especially mortifying because our neighbor keeps a nice yard, and surely doesn't want dog poop on it. Sniper doesn't really listen to me, but usually Tim can get her back on our property pretty quickly.
And this is what was happening on Saturday morning. I let Sniper out first thing in the morning and she promptly headed over to our neighbors yard. But instead of going in the back, she went to the front. I ran to get Tim, and by the time he got out there, she had wandered (or rolled -- we are on a hill) down to the street. Tim got outside in time to hear the impact and hear her cry. He yelled for me, and as he did, I heard her cry, as well. I wasn't sure what it was until he came running up the driveway carrying Sniper and saying "She got hit by a car."
In that second, I looked at her and saw that she was conscious and breathing and seemed okay. I kept asking if she was okay, and he kept telling me she got hit by a car. I went to call the vet, but I couldn't even remember their name to look them up. Once I found their number in my address book and dialed, I could hardly tell them our name. Luckily they had us come right in. I was afraid to touch Sniper because I didn't know if she was okay. So I had Tim load her in the car and off we went.
By the time we got to the vet, I could kind of tell that Sniper was okay. She had been standing on all fours at home and was conscious. She wanted to jump out of the car when we got to the vet's office and seemed fine in the waiting room. I was afraid she was going to convulse or collapse because of hidden injuries, but she continued to seem okay.
The vet was so nice -- it is really a place that loves animals. They checked her over, declared her stable, and did some x-rays. Nothing was wrong other than a broken tooth and a dilated left pupil. They think that her pupil will be okay (and it seems to be), and that she will be fine.
Since we've been home, Sniper has been jumping and running around like nothing happened. She is truly the luckiest dog ever. And even though she has gone back to 100% naughty dog behavior, we feel like the luckiest parents, too.
