Laddie O

Before some of ya'll start lecturing me about this story, please remember it happenned in the 70's.

Laddie O was an adorable little cocker spaniel mix that showed up on our doorstep one day. He was sooo cute. He was a solid blond color with the same color eyes. He enjoyed tromping through the river mud and he kept getting us in trouble because he would get it all over us and the patio and porches. This was NOT his biggest flaw.

Laddie was hit by a car seven times (actually 6 - I will explain).

After he was hit by a car the fifth time (making a total of four broken hind legs and one broken shoulder) my mom decreed that if he ever got hit again, she would not pay the vet bills. We were instructed to keep him in his pen or tied up. As usual we felt sorry for him and let him out to play.

Laddie was lying in the back yard eating a bone. Rusty was in the front yard mowing grass. Rusty hit a piece of iron pipe and it went flying through the air (I witnessed all this taking place). The iron pipe hit Laddie O in the in the shoulder and broke his leg in the exact same place. The cast had only been off for a week.

As poor Laddie lay screaming on the ground beside his beloved bone, my mom comes out and looks at him with dismay. All of us kids are crowded around him begging her for another chance. After all, what happenned wasn't his fault. It was just plain, old, bad luck! So once again mommy loads Laddie up and takes him to the vet. That was trip number six.

One day she had just left the house and a neighbor comes over and tells me Laddie had been hit by a car again. He was lying in the middle of the road. I rushed out with Billy and Rhonda and we scrape him off the road - but he is alive. I go to the payphone and I call my dad crying and begging to take Laddie to the vet again. He tells me it is ok to take him. (I had just passed my driver's test)

We hurriedly loaded Laddie up (partly because his condition was so serious and partly because we knew that as soon as my mom found out that she would be furious). We rushed to the vet's office and they start to administer emergency care. My mom comes in about five minutes after we get there and tells them to stop everything. She would not pay for anymore treatment.

My brother points out to her that she might as well let them finish because she was going to have to pay for what they had already done. She agreed - under one condition. The vet had to keep Laddie and find a home for him when he was well. He did.

I heard once that Laddie had been running through our junior high school and they had to chase him on all three floors before they ran him out of the building. About 3 years later, I was working at Burger Chef. I looked outside to see Laddie bumming food in the parking lot. By the time I called my mom and received permission to bring him home he was gone - never to be seen again.