Dog’s best friend
Published: January 9, 2006
A black American pit bull puppy living in a junkyard seems an unlikely china doll.
But on Christmas eve, Lonnie Smith rushed the sick creature to the Animal Hospital at 1250 Main St. 10 minutes before it closed and begged for treatment.
“I don’t have a lot of money. But I promised them, ‘If the dog dies or if the dog lives, I’ll pay you,’” said Smith, 37, who has blackened his hands salvaging parts at the local junkyard where he lives on-site in a trailer with Knucklehead.
Initially, he figured she had lapped up some antifreeze.
“But then I opened up her mouth, and it didn’t smell like antifreeze,” he said.
The vet diagnosed the 25-pound puppy with parvo, a virus that lowers white blood cell count and makes animals vulnerable to potentially fatal infections.
“I know people food ain’t too good for them. But every once in a while, I feed her cheeseburgers,” Smith said of the puppy. “When she wouldn’t even eat a cheeseburger, I knew she was sick.”
By Jan. 2, when the Animal Hospital discharged Knucklehead, Smith knew he faced a hefty bill. So he pawned his red and white 1988 Chevy pickup and used some of the $400-plus to pay back as much as he could.
Smith now rides a green Schwinn and is still making payments to the hospital, he said.
“He was very honest and forthright about his whole situation,” Animal Hospital office manager Jennifer McLaughlan said. “There are not many people who go to the lengths he’s gone to pay us for their pet care.”
Smith got Knucklehead in early December for free from a client, he said. At first, he refused.
“Then I met her. She was in the bathtub. That’s where she lived,” he said. “I couldn’t take it. I just took her home with me, and we’ve been together ever since.”
By day, Knucklehead keeps Smith company, chewing plastic bottles while he works among a crammed hodgepodge of car carcasses and engine parts. She dozes on a light blue blanket beside a battered convertible overflowing with aluminum cans.
By night, Knucklehead curls up near his right arm.
“She’s Lonnie’s baby,” a co-worker said Friday.
A self-described loner, Smith agreed.
“Yeah. She’s pretty much my family,” he said. “Knucklehead doesn’t bite, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard her growl.
“Huh, kid, huh?” he said, rubbing the puppy’s belly in the morning sun.
“This little dog just tore my heart out when I saw her sick like that. These people (at the Animal Hospital) were heroes to me,” he added.
“See, it says right here, ‘We treat your animals like our own,’” Smith said, pointing at the slogan running along the bottom of his oil-stained Animal Hospital bill. “They do. For sure. They saved my dog.”
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