Frank the sausage dog's road to recovery
Beloved sausage dog Frank suffered a fractured spine after the car he was in was rear-ended on Auckland’s Southern Motorway. The much-loved pooch’s owners are now hoping kindhearted Kiwis will help Frank on his way to recovery.
Melanie Joy, 34, was travelling from Ngaruawahia to visit family in Auckland with Frank, who is never far from the couple’s side, in his crate in the back seat, when the traffic came to a sudden halt on the motorway.
Although Joy stopped with plenty of room, the driver behind her didn’t and ploughed into the back of her car at speed, sending it spinning.
“She spun about five or six times. It was phenomenal she didn’t actually hit anyone else around her,” said Joy’s partner, Ewen McBeth.
“If there was someone sitting in the back seat they probably would’ve been severely injured.
“The car was a complete write-off.” Joy was lucky to walk away uninjured but the couple’s floppyeared friend was not so fortunate.
“The force of the impact fractured his L7 vertebrae. He was in a whole lot of pain and going mental,” said McBeth.
“If he hadn’t been in the crate he would’ve been a goner for sure.”
After x-rays and a CT scan, the couple were told if vets didn’t operate, 2-year-old Frank would live a hard life.
“We said go straight ahead and do it,” said McBeth.
Having recently bought their first home in Ngaruawahia and living off one income while Joy studies health and fitness at
Wintec, the crash could not have come at a worse time. But the pair was not prepared to lose their “child”.
“We don’t have children and at this stage we’re not sure whether we will. If we were to lose him it would be What’s your view? letters@hos.co.nz like losing a child really.”
Three months down the track and almost $10,000 later, Frank is on the road to recovery. But with a metal plate, five screws and two pins in his spine he will never be the active pup he once was. “We’ve been told he can’t really run and jump like he did because if he falls the wrong way then it’s potentially going to damage [his back] or cause some other complications. Before the accident we would take him to the park and throw a ball in the river and he would swim down the river after his ball and come back. He would do that all day basically, until he fell over.”
Frank has been doing canine hydrotherapy twice a week to aid his post-op recovery.
McBeth and Joy have been told by police that they don’t intend on charging the driver, leaving them to foot the hefty vet bill.
The couple have raised almost $3000 on Givealittle.