Dog Owner’s Best Friends
When Carlotta Garrett’s dog was hit by a car that Friday morning, she thought she’d never be able to afford the surgery to put Taz back together.
She didn’t count on the Cat Lady.
“She paid $1,200 to save this dog’s leg, without a question,” Garrett said. “The only words she ever said were, ‘Spare no cost.”’
Taz’s savior, Pag Sisseck, said she isn’t a hero. She just loves animals. The $1,200 she paid to fix Taz is slightly more than she nets a month, and was filched from a rainy day account to fix up her home.
It’s a large amount to pay for someone else’s pet, animal advocates said.
“Twelve hundred dollars is the largest bill I’ve ever heard, and I’ve been in this business 25 years,” said Gail Mackie, executive director of SpokAnimal.
Sisseck and her daughter, Tiel Vogt, have a history of helping animals.
Sisseck goes through a case of cat food a day, feeding 30 to 50 stray cats that roam near her work, home and grocery store. She’s named them all. At the Tidyman’s on Cedar, clerks call her the Cat Lady.
Vogt helps any injured animal she sees - even insects. On a cold day this spring, she brought a sluggish, freezing bumblebee into her home, warmed it under a bowl on her clothes dryer and let out the bug when it was warm outside.
Together, they form their own kind of dynamic duo.
Vogt cuts through the bureaucratic red tape. Sisseck pays the bills. A couple of years ago, Vogt made the calls and Sisseck paid $600 to house 12 dogs that had been cramped in a troubled kennel north of town.
The couple sprang into action at 8 a.m. on June 16, when Taz was hit. Garrett thought her dog was safe in her back yard. Taz somehow had gotten out of the gate and wandered about a block to the busy corner of Ash and Boone.
Taz didn’t have a license or a collar, and was hit by a car. The dog whimpered on a grassy patch as a bone poked out of its front right leg. Several people comforted Taz until SpokAnimal arrived.
Sisseck was working a few doors down when she heard. She had just gotten up from her desk to fix some tea, so she put her water down on a table and ran outside. At the time, everyone thought the dog was a stray.
Injured stray animals typically are stabilized and taken to the Humane Society for 72 hours. Doctors perform no heroics. If an owner doesn’t show up or someone doesn’t adopt the injured animal from the Humane Society, it’s usually euthanized.
Sisseck ran back inside and called her daughter. Vogt called SpokAnimal and the Spokane Humane Society and received permission to get the stray treated.
Taz was taken to Audubon Veterinary Clinic. Meanwhile, a man from SpokAnimal had tracked down Garrett.
“I was just so upset,” Garrett said. “I was kind of shocked at first.”
She walked to Audubon, where she learned it would cost $400 to have the dog’s leg amputated. Vogt and her mother decided to send the dog to the Pet Emergency Clinic, where a veterinarian operated for more than five hours.
Garrett is financially strapped. She couldn’t afford the bill of $1,200. So Sisseck paid the bill.
“I’m only a passer-by,” Sisseck said. “I’m a Christian. I didn’t do anything. It’s not my money, it’s God’s money. My first choice is to do what He would do.”
Taz, a mix between a chow and a rottweiler, is a sunny red-haired dog with a toothy grin. Garrett’s kids call him “Taz man” after the whirling Tasmanian devil. His style now is cramped by a bandaged front leg with pins and plates inside.
“He’s walking around on three legs,” Garrett said. “He’s pouting. He uses it for attention. If someone comes to see him, he’ll come up and put the bad leg on their lap.”
She calls Sisseck and her daughter guardian angels, but they say they did nothing special. They want no thankyous. They only want to know that Taz has a good home.
“People who give month after month after month to help the Humane Society and give food and volunteer and walk animals, they’re doing a heck of a lot more than I am,” Sisseck said. “It’s not the story it sounds like. It really isn’t.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo