This is a true story that happened to one of our volunteers and her rescue frog, Louie. Please read it, commit the lessons to memory, and if you live in an elevator building, take the advice to heart.
"I am writing this today, still shaken up and very much embarrassed by an event that could have turned tragic in an instant had we not had someone watching over us last night…
I want to share the experience with everyone here because in the same breath of guilt and shame, I also feel the old adage… If it could happen to me, It could happen to you too…
Louie and I went out on our walk with our roommates (one 2, one 4-legged), and met up with our neighbor and her dog for the usual evening constitutional. We finished walking and processed back to the elevators to go up to our respective floors talking and carrying on along the way. As the doors opened and the 5 of us went in, Louie of course, was lagging behind sniffing and looking for his last gecko of the evening. Now, this is his normal routine and I know to accommodate him for it; stand in the threshold of the elevator and coax him to “Come on” until he finally gives it up and grudgingly schleps into the lift with me, and we can proceed.
Last night however, the other two adults and dogs went in before me, and I was bringing up the rear with my back to the outside where Louie was still investigating – I stopped on the threshold of the elevator, knowing he was still out there and that I needed to hold the door, and about to turn around to call him on but still chatting away with the girls. Suddenly, I felt the doors graze my backside and in the milliseconds it took for me to throw my hand behind me to stop the door, the doors were closed!
Not necessarily a big deal, you say…unless one of the people has already pushed the buttons to select the floors! Well you guessed it…one of them had!
At this point (and remember, it’s only been maybe 10 seconds total from walking in, to door closing) the elevator is moving and I am flipping out, but quick to think: I immediately began pulling the slack from inside the retractable leash out to the end, stepping on it and yanking with all my might trying to break the mechanism inside so that it will break free from the plastic handle and can just be pulled through the doors and down the shaft to the first floor…thus eliminating the danger of my dog being hung or crushed/pinned by the force of the pull into the door jam/ceiling. This isn’t working – everyone is screaming – the other two are pushing every button on the elevator trying to get it to physically stop, but of course there isn’t one.
The elevator does end up stopping seconds later on the 2nd floor, where our neighbor lives. I fly out and down the stairs, around the corner to see Louie sitting in front of the elevator doors and looking confused as to why he was there by himself – approximately 1.5-2 feet of slack away from the line being pulled taught enough to begin to lift him off the ground…
I damn near fainted and threw up all at the same time. I of course unhook his harness from the leash and snatch him up and proceed up the stairs to the 2nd floor where the others are still freaking out, holding the elevator and waiting. We cut the cord with scissors, went back down to retrieve the part that was stuck in between the ground and second level and pretty much collapsed onto the stairs from the trauma. All the while, Louie is blissfully ignorant of the entire affair and still alertly keeping a watchful eye out for the geckos…
The moral of the story is: THANK GOD we were with my neighbor who lives on the 2nd floor and the elevator stopped that quickly instead of proceeding up to the 4th. If that had happened, I honestly don’t know what would have happened to Louie based on the laws of Physics…
He could have been crushed or had broken ribs, punctured lungs…God only knows due to the force of the pull and being pinned to the door jam/ceiling. Undoubtedly the line would have broken from tension and force at some point, but at how many feet it would have had to have gone up/how many seconds he would have been pinned, no one knows. Then, I’d only have been able to hope that he would have fallen the 8 feet and landed on his feet, but that isn’t guaranteed either, nor is the fact that just landing on his feet wouldn’t have still jarred his spine or caused him to hit his face, etc, etc, etc, down the long list of horrible things that could have happened…
The lessons learned from this miracle experience are that 1) we don’t get in the elevator without Louie being right there too and 2) you never push buttons for your destination until all parties are safely inside – had the buttons not been pushed and the door closed, the ‘Door Open’ button could have easily been pushed and the doors would have opened with no one worse for the wear since the machine hadn’t already been given the ‘Up’ command yet.
Like I said, it was
scary as Hell to think that my negligence could have potentially had TRAGIC consequences for my favorite friend, Louie. It’s embarrassing and I’m ashamed to admit that I was so careless, but at the same time…I wanted to share it in hopes that those of you fellow dog owners who use elevators with your dogs on a daily basis will get a quick jolt of reminder for how dangerous the situation can become if you aren’t always, always on the ball."
She's absolutely right--this scary and horrible story could happen to anyone. Please take special care around elevators and even escalators; be sure to pick up your dog before getting on an escalator so his toenails or dangling collar or tags don't get caught in the treads! More buildings are allowing dogs to come inside, and dog owners must become aware of the hazards to dogs of buildings' automated parts.
Hoping you learned a little something today, as did
The Frog Princess
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