Friday, September 08, 2006

Those On-Star commercials are real.

I could never blog about this unless the outcome was good. Which it was. If it weren't, I'd be sobbing in a crumpled little ball.

This is how the scenario goes...

Last night I was a few blocks from my house. At a corner on the same side I was driving - I notice this woman clutching what looked to be like an 11 year old boy. When I say clutching, I mean it looked like she was holding onto him for dear life.

Later I would find out she was. The child was autistic. She was trying desperately to get keep the child from reacting to a dog. This scene for obvious reasons aroused my attention. The count-down went like this: I looked at them, noted it was really odd. Looked back at the road, and a big golden retriever is at my front right quarter panel. The same side the woman and this kid are on. Must have only been two seconds and I hit the dog. I was only able to slow down for about 3 feet when I was just on him. I was positive I was going to roll right over him. I hit the dog in a way that caused it to roll over like four times. I was sure the dog wouldn't get up.

The dog does get up, and runs to the lady and her kid on the corner. I run out of my car to ask if it is the lady's dog. She tells me, and the large forming crowd, it had been following her for blocks. Running circles around her and the child. By this time the dog is really bleeding, and everyone is on the phone to the police. I'm freaking out. The dog has no tags, and I am sure this dog is going to die. At one point a witness said she thought the dog was coughing up blood, and she thought it had a broken hip. I'm freaking out.. Did I mention that. All I can think is that someone's family is going to be crushed.

The police department finally made it obvious they weren't coming. Apparently hitting a dog in the street isn't a crime, so they weren't coming. Oh yeah... and they don't rescue squirrels either. They didn't say that.. but you get the idea. I at least thought they would want to make a report. Or take my information. Something.

So my husband is now on his way home from another town an hour away. He is telling me to call our vet and get the emergency clinic number. But at this point I am dealing with the witnesses and the dog. Trying to get the police to come, and having a complete meltdown. I was shaking.. apologizing to the woman who had the autistic child who saw the accident. I was a mess.

Later I find out my husband didn't want to pull off the freeway to look the numbers up for animal ER. I have made him completely panicky. All he wants to do is get to me. His only thought "must get to wife".

So he tries On-star. Tells them the scenario. Remember my husband is not in the affected car, and he is in a completely different town. On-Star at first couldn't find any information. So my husband asks them if they could call our vet line, who is closed - and get the emergency number for him. They actually did. They even connected him to animal emergency from the number they got from our vet. When he told me this after all the drama had died down I was completely amazed. I mean... I don't really think this falls under their umbrella of service.

Even if we never use the service again for an emergency.... it is absolutely worth every penny we pay for it.

Now back to the dog... a very nice lady and I got him to the ER in a different town. All the ones in our town close at 5:00. None of the witnesses thought I should drive. They all seemed more freaked out by my anxiety than the dog. Even though we all thought the dog would die. The ER doc checked him. Can you believe the dog was okay. I was shocked. I mean... I hit him at around 25 miles an hour. I think the limit is 30.

The vet said the dog looked like one of the better dogs they had ever seen for getting hit at 25 miles an hour. He had bitten his tongue. That was where all the blood was coming from. The exam didn't show any broken bones or internal bleeding. I still can't believe I didn't kill that dog. All I can say selfishly, I am hugely glad the dog was okay. I didn't want to have to live with that crap in my head. I'm neurotic enough.

2 comments:

  1. What is On-Star? Something new to me (but then again, i live in a totally different country on a continent far far away!)

    What happened to the dog in the end? Did anyone take it home to care for it?

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  2. On-Star is an factory installed safety and security system. It monitors you car, and if you get in an accident - it will call for help, and a live person will talk to you until help arrives. At first it seems a little creepy, because you never think you will use it.

    I'm not sure what happened to the dog. That night it stayed at the Animal ER, and the next day Animal services was suppose to see if it had an chip ID. If not, they would find a home for it.

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