Sad, yet heartwarming story with happy ending

[Coventina]

This all happened in the last hour.

I was coming back from the gym when a dog got hit by a car right in front of my townhome complex. This is a very busy street, with many heavy construction trucks traveling on it almost constantly.

Luckily for the dog, he was hit by a compact car. A whole bunch of people stopped, including the person that hit him.

The dog staggered over to the sidewalk and collapsed, but didn't appear to be in a life-threatening condition.

One of the people who stopped was a family physician and she had a phone. The dog had a tag with an address and phone number, so she called the number and reached the owner at work (must have been a cell phone number).

We all stayed with the dog, another person stopped with a dog dish and water, but the Dr. said not to give the dog anything because we didn't know about internal injuries.

The police came, not sure if they were called or if he just stopped because so many people were stopped at the side of the road.

The dog, although in obvious pain, was fairly calm and accepted us petting and fussing over him. When he tried to stand, we convinced him to lie back down again, which he did without complaint. He was a big dog, maybe a St. Bernard mix. He had the head and coloring of a St. Bernard, but his body didn't seem big enough.

The owner showed up about 15 minutes later, offered to pay damages to the guy's car, which the hitter graciously declined.

The police officer advised the owner to make sure the dog is kept more securely, but did not issue him a ticket. Owner then took doggie to the hospital.

We all shook hands and went our separate ways.

It was just a nice episode, and I was glad to see so many people actually care enough to stop.