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<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0 Suddenly, the animal came to life.\u00a0 Oliver awoke and saw the big bird next to him and he rose tremulously on his three legs.\u00a0 The leg in the trap just hung limply and useless.\u00a0 The vulture looked at him with interest.\u00a0 Oliver found his voice and let out a series of barks that startled the bird and sent it flying back up into the branches to safety.\u00a0\u00a0 This obviously was not a dead animal and not his next meal.\u00a0 Flapping his wings,\u00a0 he flew away up into the air with the other vultures \u00a0still searching and searching for another dead animal.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Oliver sighed and lay back down wondering if this horror would ever end.<\/p>\n
Day 13<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Oliver awoke strangely rested and with a new sense of courage he had never felt before.\u00a0 He had thwarted the coyotes’ attack.\u00a0 He had chased a big bird away. He felt like he could do anything. Now he must get free.\u00a0 He knew his buddies were waiting for him.\u00a0 He just knew it. He wanted to see them so badly.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 He rose on his three good legs, the fourth dangling uselessly, held fast by the wicked trap.\u00a0 He began to pull and pull.\u00a0 He pulled all morning, stopping only for little rests.\u00a0\u00a0 He panted, but there was no moisture left in his mouth. If he did not get water soon, he would surely die.\u00a0 One more time, he gave a mighty pull and suddenly, freedom!\u00a0\u00a0 The chain around the tree had finally broken.\u00a0 But Oliver could not walk.\u00a0 He would have to crawl. So, he did.<\/p>\n
Day 14<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Oliver had crawled all night.\u00a0 It was slow moving through the forest.\u00a0 Crawl, try to walk a bit, then crawl again.\u00a0 He didn’t know whether he was headed home, but he kept moving.\u00a0\u00a0 He crawled all day.\u00a0 He came upon a creek where he got the first drink of water he had had in days.\u00a0 Oliver drank the cool, fresh water and felt invigorated.\u00a0\u00a0 It tasted so good.\u00a0 Best water he had ever drunk.\u00a0 He lay there enjoying the Winter sun upon his back, but he knew he must keep moving and find safety because the forest is a dangerous place for a wounded animal.\u00a0 He crawled some more until he saw a road. He knew humans traveled these roads.\u00a0 His buddies traveled them all the time.\u00a0 He crawled as close as he could to it and collapsed.\u00a0 He lay there quietly waiting.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 A woman was driving on this particular road that day, singing along with some music on her car radio. Enjoying the perfect Winter day.\u00a0\u00a0 Then she saw what appeared to be a large animal laying beside the road.\u00a0 Was it a deer.\u00a0 Deer were hit by cars quite often in this part of the country and were seen alongside the roads regularly.\u00a0\u00a0 She slowed her car and looked down at the animal. It was a dog!\u00a0\u00a0 An emaciated, dirty, dog with a badly matted coat and there was a trap on one of its legs.\u00a0 She got out of her car.\u00a0 Was it breathing?\u00a0\u00a0 She walked slowly toward\u00a0 Oliver and he lifted his head weakly.\u00a0\u00a0 Yes!\u00a0 It was alive and she began to cry at the condition of the poor dog.\u00a0\u00a0 She called 911 and they contacted animal control who came and they tried getting the trap off Oliver’s leg, but it was so strong they were unable to get it off him.\u00a0 They had to find his owners.\u00a0 Oliver had ID on him and they quickly found his buddies on the big hill.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 When his buddies saw Oliver they were so glad to see him, but were shocked at his condition.\u00a0 Mama buddy called Papa buddy who took Oliver to the veterinarian where Oliver’s leg had to be amputated.\u00a0\u00a0 The vet was very unhappy about this because she had seen other animals in her office who had been caught in traps. Just a few days before Oliver, she had had to remove the toes of a Great Horned Owl who had been caught in a trap.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0 In a few days, Oliver was back home with his family.\u00a0\u00a0 Laying on his warm bed with food in his stomach, he could almost forget the ordeal he had gone through, but not quite because some things startled him now that never startled him before.\u00a0 Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome is possible even with a dog.\u00a0 He still had to learn to walk.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 And he did.<\/p>\n
The End<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0 Trapping is one of the cruelest ways of hunting animals.\u00a0 Even at that, the trapper is supposed to check his traps every few days.\u00a0 This particular trapper had not checked his traps for at least fourteen days and probably longer, leaving a poor, defenseless dog to suffer for days and lose a leg.\u00a0\u00a0 Stop all trapping.<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
continuing…\u2026. Day 8 \u00a0 Oliver looked like half the dog he use to be.\u00a0 He had lost a lot of weight.\u00a0 He slept restlessly because he knew the coyotes were nearby.\u00a0 What did they want?\u00a0\u00a0 Pull on the chain until exhaustion set in.\u00a0 Once again that night the owl hooted in the tree above him.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-stories-by-kate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8388"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8393,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8388\/revisions\/8393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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