Anyone who has volunteered or worked in dog rescue knows what we mean when we say that the resiliency of rescue dogs is truly amazing. 

hart volunteers witnessed a horrible event last week when Rambo, a pup they were trying to rescue, was hit by a truck right in front of their eyes.  The helplessness they felt when they saw Rambo under the path of two tires was matched with the heart wrenching time they spent listening to his cries.  Our quick thinking volunteers put their compassion into action and scooped a bleeding and limp Rambo up and sped him as quickly and safely as possible to the emergency clinic. 

It has been less than one week since Rambo's tussle with a motor vehicle and remarkably, he is up and about. 

Certainly the quick thinking of hart volunteers contributed to his recovery…as did the dental surgery he underwent to fix the fractures in his jaw.  The good news is that there was only soft tissue damage sustained by the weight of the vehicle as opposed to the spinal fracture that was initially suspected.

Even so…how many of us could say that within one week of being hit by a truck that dwarfed us so much in size that we were up and about, eating (soft food), giving kisses and wagging our tails. 

Through the rescue work that we do, we have come to understand that dogs have a higher pain tolerance than most humans.  What some dogs endure daily is more than some of us could endure in a lifetime.  Still, is it their physical capacity to handle pain that makes them so resilient or is it their mental capacity?  We are sure there are numerous veterinary based studies on this topic, but we just wanted to bring it to the top of your mind. 

While we have witnessed depression in dogs, we do not see this regularly.  Most dogs we have rescued have been like Rambo - incredibly able to embrace recovery.   This is a lesson that our rescue dogs have taught all of us.