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 Tammy,
the 5 year old Collie cross, was owned by John Willis of Newbury.
Tammy wasn't particularly interested in sticks, she was happy just to flit around the forest looking for squirrels to chase. Occasionally (if she couldn't find a squirrel) she would chase her Rottweiller friend Ben, and they would race off together, barking happily as they ran. On this particular fateful day, Ben had picked up a stick and was proudly carrying it. John didn't believe in throwing sticks, he knew how dangerous they could be if they were thrown but Ben was just carrying this one and he didn't see any harm in that. He knew that Ben would get bored with it and drop it before long anyway. But before Ben dropped the stick, Tammy decided to run up behind him to instigate a chase. |
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 Ben
obviously thought that Tammy was after his stick and he turned his head
away just as Tammy got alongside him. The stick that Ben was
carrying was long, protruding at least 10 inches out to the side of his
mouth, and unfortunately the end of it was jagged. As Ben turned
his head, the jagged end of the stick ripped across Tammy's eye, tearing
the eyeball.
Tammy was screaming and lying on
the ground scratching at her eye with her paws. John was quite a long way
behind the dogs but he ran to Tammy's aid and when he saw the gaping
hole that was once Tammy's beautiful brown eye, he almost passed out. |
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They were a long distance from the
car park, but John took Tammy in his arms and got back to the car as
quickly as he could. He drove Tammy straight to the vet, who performed an
emergency operation to remove the eye. Several splinters of stick were
still in the eye so it was a very tricky and lengthy operation.
John saw Tammy after the operation. She was on a high dose of painkillers but she looked quite comfortable and despite the vet's warnings that she was still in a critical condition, John never doubted that she would pull through, and would soon be chasing Ben and the squirrels in the forest again. However, the following day, John received a phonecall from the vet to say that he had some bad news. Tammy had developed septicaemia and had died of toxic shock. John just couldn't believe that Tammy had gone. He felt so guilty. He would never have allowed Ben to carry a stick if he'd known how dangerous it was, but who could have guessed that one dog carrying a stick could kill another dog in a tragic twist of fate? John still has Ben but he doesn't allow him to carry sticks any more, and he makes sure that Ben keeps away from any other dogs that are carrying sticks.
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