If you HAVE a Frenchton already, this will NOT surprise you. Likely your dog gets VERY worked up when you come home and either barks/screams like they are being attacked or simply throws them self out the door to plow you over (did I mention they are FIERCELY DEVOTED?).

There was NO containing her.

Mom is usually home all day and every day. SO when MOM LEAVES, Dittie is NOT HAPPY and has to LET MOM KNOW as soon as she sees her again. This usually involves massive amounts of snarls and barks and nipping at my legs and hands (she’s getting better on this).

On one particular winter evening in 2021, I had been out at a meeting. The sun has been shining bright all day, melting the snow pack on our driveway. Our driveway measures 1,000ft from road to house, and we plow it with one of our tractors. We have gravel, so plowing to the ground would fill our grass with rocks. Usually we keep a thin layer of snow on it.

But as I began my approach up the driveway, I could TELL it had turned to ice. It had gotten cold FAST, and despite the 20 degrees outside, Erik had let Dittie out to potty and she REFUSED to come back in, instead sitting on the deck to wait for mom.

When she saw the headlights pull into the driveway in the dark, she KNEW it had to be Mom!

I carefully rounded the curve of the driveway, going extra slow. I did NOT want to slide into the pig pasture . . . the last thing I needed was another thing I had to fix! Worse yet, I did NOT want to run into our house, and since our driveway sloped the slightest bit downward toward our house, we were lucky none of us had yet!

But what I didn’t expect, was a dog flying at my car out of nowhere.

She was maybe 50 feet down the driveway and coming full speed. Out of instinct, I hit the brakes. The was the WRONG thing to do.

Even though I have anti-lock brakes, the sudden “stop” force sent my Honda Pilot SAILING across the icy driveway . . . and Dittie tried the same on her end, but slid as well.

I saw her wide eyes as my bumper met her, and the car lurched upward as my front tire ran her body over. In those SPLIT SECONDS, you realize how FAST your mind thinks.

Ok. maybe we can save her. She only got the front tire.

CA-WHOMP. She went under the second tire. Nope. If the first tire didn’t kill her, the second tire certainly has.

The car came to a stop in our parking pad, and I turned off the car and sat in stunned silence. I had tried SO MANY TIMES working with Carl and Ginger running at cars in our driveway, but Dittie never ran at cars. She was always Mom’s sidekick. It had NEVER occurred to me she might try to run at MY CAR.

I knew she was dead. No small dog could have survived that. TWO TIRES over ice?!

(On a side note, just this year in 2023, a 3 year old child ran through a parking lot at a park and was hit AND KILLED by a slow moving car. A 3 yr old is MUCH LARGER than a 30 lb Frenchton)

I had seen a LOT of awful things in the 10 years of running this farm. I took a deep breath and steeled myself for what to do next. Carl and Ginger were screaming and barking and clawing at my door (Erik had let them out as soon as he saw me stop, but he had NO IDEA what had happened).

I threw the door open to yell at them to go away so I could collect my dog’s body, only to realize Dittie was bouncing and screaming excitedly as well. For a few minutes I was 100% certain this must be her doggy ghost, and looked around for a body.

With no body to be found, I turned back toward her nipping, screaming self and grabbed her both out of anger and out of panic and raced to the house.

I burst through the door slamming the door on Carl and Ginger without a thought and collapsed on the floor. Dittie tried to wriggle away but I sternly scolded her through clenched teeth to “lie down and let Mom look you over!”

“What’s wrong?” Erik was confused as he walked over to let a barking Carl and screaming Ginger in.

“GET BACK!” I yelled at them as they eagerly jumped around me.

Erik knew something was VERY wrong and scooted Ginger and Carl into their pens.

“I ran Dittie over.”

“Huh?”

“I RAN Dittie OVER. She came barreling down the driveway at me and I hit the brakes but the car accelerated and ran her right over!”

Erik still looked confused.

Dittie’s eyes were large as I carefully looked her over for gashes and cuts, and slowly moved her legs back and forth and gently probed her body for tender spots.

I prayed feverishly, but knew it was a freak accident. There was little hope of this being ok. I even did a bit of Masterson method on her hoping to heal any internal damage.

She didn’t have any blood. Weird. . . it’s got to be all internal damage.

I called every vet, and every hospital. NO ONE would take a hit dog. It was Sunday evening, they advised me to call my regular vet in the morning.

So I had to wait.

The next morning as soon as they opened, I was on the phone making an appointment to bring Dittie in. But this was a problem in itself. She had gotten over her excitement and was now MAD. She would NOT look at me, and walked off if I came close.

SHE THOUGHT I HAD RUN HER OVER ON PURPOSE.

This almost killed me more. She was my BEST FRIEND, I would NEVER do such a thing.

I dragged her into the car. She was convinced even more I had done it on purpose and was violently shaking.

The vet ran every test possible and x-rayed every inch.

“You sure you ran her over?”

Three times they asked.

“YES! I felt her go under BOTH drivers side TIRES!”

The vet shook their head. “There is NO WAY. She has absolutely NO DAMAGE. No breaks, fractures or even a bruise. NOTHING.”

They rolled their eyes and sent me home.

It was a WEEK before Dittie would look at me, but I settled for the trade considering she was perfectly fine.

It was a miracle for sure!

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