Pet Talk-May 18, 2006

Sarge’s ordeal: The return of a hero

By: Dr. Daniel Eubanks
   Any living in the Lambertville-New Hope area is surely well aware of at least two events of the past few weeks — the Shad Festival and the disappearance and return of Sarge.
   Sarge is a black lab search and rescue dog belonging to Pat and Spring Pittore of Lambertville.
   Sarge’s story received coverage by Fox, ABC and this newspaper. At the risk of seemingly immortalizing this dog, which isn’t very difficult or inappropriate to do, I’d like to follow up on his recovery.
   Media coverage was a no-brainer as Sarge has a hero’s reputation. His most notable service efforts include 10 consecutive days searching the toxic rubble at the Ground Zero 9-11 site for survivors, wading through the Atlantic City Tropicana Hotel parking garage collapse site for the missing and searching the banks of the Delaware for the young man from Stockton who disappeared in a boating accident earlier this year.
   Sarge himself disappeared from his home April 12. He was found April 18 on Route 518 outside of Lambertville with severe injuries. He was brought to our hospital for treatment.
   He was dehydrated, had lost 10 pounds and had multiple wounds. Despite his condition, Sarge displayed his ever sweet disposition by wagging his sorry looking tail, which appeared to be barely attached to his rear end.
   I have never seen a distribution pattern of wounds quite like this. The rear half of his body looked like it had been double-dipped into a Cuisinart. They were obviously inflicted by more than one animal giving chase. No animal I am familiar with inflicts this number of wounds, limited exclusively to the posterior half.
   It was postulated two or more coyotes could have done this, and coyotes reportedly have been sighted in our area. If these assailants were coyotes, they could have gone toe-to-toe with Predator.
   After an afternoon of clipping, cleaning and dressing wounds, antibiotics and IV fluids, Sarge inhaled a good meal and rested the night. Next morning, he was anesthetized, and the wounds were treated more aggressively.
   There were between 150 to 200 punctures and lacerations — I didn’t stop to count. One wound extended well into the muscle of the rear leg. Several areas were debrided and sutured and the remainder allowed to heal as is.
   Sarge was discharged two days later with three latex tubing drains hanging out of his rear end and a huge plastic "lamp shade" collar around his neck. He walked out wagging his tail and, would you believe, went straight home and picked up his Frisbee to play!
   Pat tells me he is nearly back to 100 percent and will return to search and rescue activities soon.
   So have you heard enough about this canine soldier? Is all this coverage overkill? I think not.
   Consider this — if you or a loved one tragically disappears anywhere in the tri-state area, there is a good probability Sarge will be out there searching for you.