Dear veteran: Your best pal's waiting to go home
By Dennis McCarthy, Columnist
Updated: 07/29/2008 01:27:44 AM PDT



Kaiser is held by head treatment technician David Reid in the Pet Medical Center/Chat Oak in Granada Hills, Monday, July 28, 2008. Kaiser was dropped off at the clinic with a tearful letter by a homeless vet after he thought his dog was dying. Now Kaiser is getting better and the hospital staff is looking to reach the vet to let him know. (Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer)

It had to be one of the toughest, most heartbreaking decisions the guy ever made - walking up to Chatoak Pet Medical Center in Granada Hills before it opened the morning of July 21 and leaving his best friend, Kaiser, on the doorstep.

The scribbled handwriting on the envelope of the letter he left, along with a bowl of water and a blanket to keep his ailing friend warm, said as much:

"Please help him. His name is Kaiser and he won't harm anyone. He's 16 years old and I think he experienced a stroke this past evening. Be good to him as you would your own child for he's been mine 4 a loving lifetime."

Debbie Herot, the pet hospital's practice manager, looked down at the old dog trying to stand on wobbly legs and felt tears well up in her eyes as she began to read the letter.

"Dear Dr's - Please forgive me for this horrible transgression. I've no where to turn so I ask you to mercifully, gently, and lovingly, please help him sleep.

"He's been my friend, my teacher, my pupil, my lifelong loving and loyal companion since he was 8 months old. Saturday evening he began rolling on his back on the floor, all 4 legs extended, rigid, and thrusting wildly in all directions.

"I saw fear and panic in his eyes. He won't drink water and he refuses food as if he's totally lost the knowledge of what to do with food.

"I'm a homeless, disabled vet and I know when to say goodbye to a friend, and it's time."

But he was wrong.

It wasn't time. The hospital staff took his moving epitaph to heart and treated Kaiser as they would their own child.

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They gave him a ton of TLC, paid for with the last bit of money left in a fund started by the family of a 24-year-old former employee, Eric Flesher, who was killed as a passenger in a car struck by a drunk driver in 2007.

The fund is for animals who are hurt and whose owners don't have enough money to help them. Kaiser and the homeless, disabled vet.

"He wouldn't eat so we force-fed him, shoving meatballs made of healthy foods down his throat," Debbie said Monday.

"Slowly, Kaiser began to respond from the likely stroke he had suffered. We waited until Thursday, when he could finally stand, to start the search for his owner."

The staff went out and put up fliers with Kaiser's picture and story on poles and trees all over town.

"One of our employees was almost arrested for vandalism," Debbie said. "The police pulled up and said it was against the law, that fliers could only be posted on private property.

"They told her to take them down and drove off. We left them up. We weren't advertising for a garage sale. We were trying to find a homeless, disabled vet to let him know his dog didn't die, come and get him."

Sometimes compassion and a little common sense trump the law.

The hospital's staff went to gas stations and liquor stores asking for permission to put up the fliers on their property. No one said no.

"We went over to the Sepulveda VA and posted fliers all over the property, hoping he was receiving services there and would see one. But, so far, no luck."

So, they came to the local newspaper, which is the eyes and ears of any community - when it's doing its job right.

They hope someone, somewhere out there in the big, sprawling San Fernando Valley might read this column and recognize Kaiser.

Let his owner know his best friend is still alive and waiting for him.

Dennis McCarthy's column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. dennis.mccarthy@dailynews.com 818-713-3749

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