Do you see that tiny space my leg occupies?
For a moment in history my whole dog was in that space and I was terrified. We went to the dog park, like we so often do, and Allie opened the side door of our minivan and our dog Luna leapt into the sunlight at the base – but she was not narrow enough.
Somehow she got her head and shoulders through but couldn’t get her hips through. Thankfully Allie didn’t close the door as soon as she saw Luna semi-leap out – otherwise…
Luna wasn’t hurt, just stuck. She was concerned of course. She looked around with worried eyes. Attempts at pulling her back into van failed, attempts at pushing her through the space led to a small cry of complaint.
My brain flew fast, as did Allie’s – do we call 911? Will they use the jaws of life to destroy our van door and rescue our family member?
Do we call a vet? Will they break our dog’s hip to wedge her through the space?
Do we call Dodge, the maker of our van, who might send someone to remove the door carefully, freeing our pet?
I decided to call Dodge – I figured they offer us 24/7 roadside assistance and they seemed most likely to extricate our dog with the least amount of pain to both her and my wallet. I pet my dog, assured her everything would be alright, got up and opened the passenger door to get the number. Luna I guess decided it was just time to go and determinedly forced herself through the space and ran off into the dog park. Huge tufts of dog fur trailed in her wake, the only damage from her brush with being squished.
