Misty Meadow's Range Rover
By Robin M. Smith, DVM

Misty Meadow's Range Rover, a.k.a. Ranger, is not a champion, nor does he have any fancy titles. In fact, Ranger wasn't even expected to be in this life. I had become very good friends with a Mastiff person and was her veterinarian. This was her first litter of Mastiffs and a very anxious time for the both of us. We spent several days waiting for the "day" to come, and when it did, I was at her house with my veterinary supplies and to offer help in any way I could. As the pups were born, she put colored rick-rack on their necks to identify them and we cleaned them up and made sure the puppies were nursing. One pup was not breathing and barely had a heartbeat. I proceeded to do all the things I had learned to try and revive this puppy, such as using Dopram, doing cardiac compressions and trying to clear the mucus out of his throat. It finally worked, and my friend put a red ribbon on the puppy's neck. I bonded with him immediately.

Needless to say, that was Ranger. She told me I could have that puppy and I never thought of saying no. I did think about calling him Misty Meadow's Resuscitate and calling him "Tate," but she talked me out of that. So, his first car ride was in a Range Rover, and that kind of stuck.

You are probably asking yourselves what this has to do with being a "Mastiff of Distinction." Well, I had to let you know how Ranger came into this world in order to tell you what he has given to this world of ours. To my personal world, he has brought nothing but joy and contentment. He has helped me through some tough times and I can never thank him enough.

But he has also saved many lives and shared his love with thousands of children. I didn't teach Ranger anything in particular. He is just a natural with children -- or just about anyone, really. Ranger accompanies me to visit kindergartens and sits so quietly while I tell the children about the care of dogs and pets in general. He sits quietly while I show them how to brush a dog's teeth (of course, I have to carry the slobber rag). He sits quietly while I show them how I look in a dog's ears and how I listen to a dog's heart. And he lies so quietly while each and every one of these three and four-year-olds comes up and listens to his heart and lungs through the stethoscope. And he is especially attentive when I show the children how to give a dog a vitamin (although because he is a big dog, he gets a couple of them). Then, I have him walk around and let the children pet him and ask if they can take him home, etc. The teachers marvel at his gentleness and wonderful behavior. I can only grin because I know that he is coming home with me after we are finished.

Ranger and I visit high schools. We visit animal science classes and I talk about being a veterinarian. I go through performing a physical on Ranger and talk about normal values of heart rate and temperature. I start at his head and go through the exam, explaining what I am looking at and why it is important to examine the dog.

As I said, Ranger has also saved lives. He accompanies me to work at the Westminster Emergency Trauma Center, where I am director of emergency services. To date, he has given life-saving blood transfusions to three animals, and he has given blood to two dogs that did not live.

I wasn't sure that the first time I thought of using Ranger as a blood donor that I could really do it -- I mean, he is MY dog, and I didn't want to even think of hurting him. But, I had no choice; I had a nine-year-old German Shepherd that I had done a bloat surgery on and had to remove the dog's spleen. He had twisted the spleen to where it was actually cracked in half and he bled a lot -- in fact, too much. He would die without the transfusion. We have dogs that are used as donors, but this was a big dog and he needed a lot of blood right away, and I didn't have time to waste. So I just looked at Ranger and he knew he could help without me even asking.

We usually sedate our blood donors, but this time, I didn't want to if I could help it, and I knew Ranger would be good. I shaved his neck and we put him up on a table (lugged him more like it). I prepared his neck and then I looked at the needle I was going to use. I have done hundreds of transfusions, and never before in my life had I ever really seen how BIG that needle really was. And I was going to jab that into Ranger. I did, and Ranger sat very quietly and didn't move a muscle. We got out two units of blood from him, gave it to the shepherd and saved that shepherd's life. The owners of the shepherd were there and they were so happy. They instantly fell in love with Ranger and they thanked both of us. Ranger even got a thank-you card from them, and he never complained, even though I knew his neck was sore.

The second dog was an Old English Sheepdog that had been hit by a car and had ruptured her spleen. We tried to give her back her own blood that she was losing, but she needed more. So again Ranger stepped up to bat and gave blood without a whimper. Ranger would even go and check on her while she was lying in the hospital recovering. She was very critical for a couple of days, and Ranger would go over and nudge her (we kept her out on the floor on a mattress so we could have easy access to her in the middle of the intensive care unit). He seemed to know that she was sick and he was just trying to help her.

The third dog was a dog with an auto-immune bleeding disorder. It was a hectic weekend and we had already used our blood donors on other cases, or it was too soon to use them again. Ranger cooperated again and the little dog (whose name was Rags) survived. The best part of that story was that the little girl who owned the dog fell in love with Ranger and kept asking her parents if Ranger could come home with Rags when Rags got better "cuz they were blood brothers." To her dismay, her parents told her "no" and explained that Ranger had to stay at the hospital and help take care of other sick and hurt dogs. I almost cried when I discharged Rags -- the little girl came and gave Ranger a big hug and said in her bravest voice, "Thank you, Mr. Ranger, I love you." Now if that isn't an ambassador for the breed... AND he shares his life with me.

Thank you, Marlene (Ranger's breeder), for our paths crossing...

Robin M. Smith, DVM
Westminster Veterinary Emergency/Trauma Center
269 W. Main St., Westminster, MD 21557
Work 410-848-3363
(Fax) 410-848-4959
E-mail: RocknRob56@aol.com

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