"A dog walks into a doctor's office..." (no joke!)

LOS ANGELES, CA (USA)
Oct 10, 2006

The Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Bellflower accepts walk-in patients. But how about one who walks in on four legs?

Here's one clever canine who decided to find out. At around 2 pm, Oct. 4, after being hit by a car, a German Shepherd mix limped to the emergency room with a dislocated leg. He waited for the automatic doors to open and then went right in.

Nurse Vangie Co'Vivo describes what happened next: "We noticed the dog walking in, so we called security to escort him out. And right away, he turned around and came right back and sat in the waiting room area and just laid there. He wouldn't get up after that." ¹

The hospital called the Southeast Area Animal Control Authority (SEAACA) who took the friendly pooch to their facility in Downey.

"It's a big mystery," says Capt. Aaron Reyes of the SEAACA. "Nobody can figure out how he ended up at the hospital, but the good thing is he wound up getting treatment." ²

SEAACA workers found a microchip implanted under his fur identifying him as "Buddy", a 6-year-old pooch who had been adopted from the very same shelter in 2001.

He was returned to his home at the American Rentals equipment yard where he works as a guard dog. Workers say he had disappeared through a hole in the fence 2 weeks earlier.

Whatever the explanation is, it's happened more than once. On July 4, 2003, a Black Lab who had apparently been struck by a car hobbled his way to Beckley Appalachian Regional Hospital in Beckley, West Virginia.

"It's the darndest thing," said Ted Weigel, marketing director at Beckley. "The dog limped in and laid down where people could see it. It seemed to know exactly where to go for help." ³

Although the hospital wouldn't admit the pooch, they called a veterinarian and offered to pay the bill. Dr. Roger Ward, the vet, treated the dog for road burns, scrapes and an infected wound on his leg.