Dog Miraculously Survives After Being Struck by Car, Trapped in Grille for 45-Minute Ride

By Amanda Thomason November 1, 2019 at 10:35am

Dogs are pets that anyone can benefit from, no matter their situation in life. Many people who truly love their pets will put their four-legged companions’ needs before their own when times get hard — but even then, unexpected accidents can cause a lot of problems.

Plenty of people have at least a small amount of emergency cash saved up, but it’s never fun to drop $4,000 on something — especially when it’s an unexpected cost because of a freak accident.

Kathleen Davis, originally from North Carolina, told WNCN that she and her shiba inu, Coco, are inseparable.

“She does everything with me,” Davis said. “We do everything together.”

One day, Davis let her pup out to go to the bathroom in the backyard of the house she was in in New York.

The next thing she knew, she said she was being told that she’d have to come up with $4,000 to get her dog back — but what happened in between the time that Coco was let out and when she was picked up by animal control is an almost unbelievable story.

Apparently, the savvy pup dug her way under a fence, out of the backyard and into the wide blue yonder. Taking herself for a walk, she somehow ended up in the street, where an unnamed female driver hit her with her car.

According to Rotterdam police as mentioned by The Daily Gazette, the driver knew she’d hit something, but thought it was a ball. She got out to check her car but didn’t spot Coco.

“She stopped as well as some other motorist,” Rotterdam Police Lieutenant Jeffrey Collins told WNCN. “She checked her vehicle realized there was damage to the front but didn’t realize she had struck the dog.”

So she did what any other driver would have done after assessing the situation and finding nothing: She kept on driving. For 45 minutes.

Then she heard something strange coming from the front of her car, and pulled over again to check. This time, she spotted the sweet little face peeking out from inside her car, and she quickly dialed 911.

The extraction effort required a policeman and animal control officer Patty Perez.

“One of our officers was able to free the dog from the car by pressing down the scoop and allowing the dog to come out,” Collins said.

“I was able to get the catch pole around the dog’s neck inside the bumper,” Perez told the Times Union. “She stood up so I knew she wasn’t really badly injured.”

“There was a little tiny piece of plastic where the bumper wraps underneath the car and she was actually sitting on that tiny piece of plastic,” Perez explained. “She’s a small dog so luckily she almost fit in there almost perfectly.”

Despite her miraculous initial survival, Coco had been injured.

After going to Hernas Veterinary Clinic, is was determined that at least one of her elbows had been broken and would require costly surgery.

“She came to us with a shattered elbow,” Noella Lafreniere said. “To be honest, I can’t believe she survived it.”

Being on difficult times and herself disabled, Davis has started a GoFundMe to help raise the money for Coco’s surgery, according to The Toronto Sun.

“I can’t get her back unless I fix her,” Davis said, tearfully. “Unless I have her surgery done.”

“She got hit by a car that broke her right hip and her right leg,” Davis wrote on the GoFundMe page, which has raised several thousand dollars already, according to The Toronto Sun. “I was told by police that ‘she was stuck in somebody’s grill of their car’ and was taking 15 miles to Schenectady N.Y.”

“She is currently in the pet hospital needing surgery. Can’t afford the whole price she needs to get the surgery. I am also disabled and can’t work. I have a fixed income. She is a ESP dog (emotional support dog). Please help me!”

Thankfully the little dog is alive. According to the Daily Gazette, if all goes according to plan, Davis plans to return home to Thomasville, North Carolina, Sunday with Coco in tow.

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