Smokey the Lap Potato

August 13, 2009:  Smokey Goes To Nibroc

Meet Smokey tonight at the Cornerstone Christian School Elephant Ear Booth!

Puppy Survives Being Fed Scraps with BBQ Fork

Article by Su Smith, Vice President, Cumberland Valley Animal Hospital, PSC

July 15, 2009, London, Kentucky.  As I write this, we are making frantic preparations to fly to New York City to appear live on the Today Show on NBC this Friday morning.  There are many partly true, mostly true, and not-at-all true stories being circulated about Smokey all over the international news and the world wide web.  If you want the truth, this is the Official Site of Smokey the Lap Potato.  Smokey was treated at Cumberland Valley Animal Hospital, PSC and we will present the facts as we know them.

On Sunday, July 5th, Vickie Brumley of Manchester, Kentucky was feeding her dogs some scraps left over from a family cookout.  Being like most of us who love dogs, Smokey is not only a dog, but is her son's special pet.  Since he is smaller than the other family dog, I understand it to be at least part Chow Chow but have not met it personally, Vickie was trying to make sure Smokey got his fair share of special snacks.  She noticed that the larger dog was pushing Smokey out of the way, practically attacking him, so she began to shoo the big dog away with her free hand--the one holding the BBQ fork.  To her dismay, as she was frantically waving the BBQ fork at the larger dog to send it away, the plastic handle of the fork let go of the prongs which went flying through the air and she was left with an empty handle.  Poor little Smokey with his tender puppy head was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  As you can see from the radiograph below, the fork sticking out of the puppy's head has no handle.  (This fork MAY be on display at a Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum--catch them on facebook as "Ripleys BION"--exact location to be announced when fork is released by Vickie.)

The family watched in horror as the fork speared Smokey's head, right in the soft spot God leaves in the skull to aid mothers in childbirth, sending Smokey into a panicked sprint into the woods.  Those of you who live in Kentucky know that the weather this month has been rife with sudden storms, and our

Independence Day Weekend was no exception.  For two days Smokey's family searched the woods around their house, often in the pouring rain and mud, and finally came to the conclusion that Smokey had either died of his injury or been eaten by the local wildlife.

Hughie W. Wagers, Vickie's brother, first heard about Smokey on Tuesday , July 7th.  Vickie does not have a car or phone and her brother runs errands for her on a regular basis.  He had dropped by, heard what happened to his nephew's new puppy, and was sitting on the front porch discussing plans with the Brumleys about where to start the evening's search.  As they laid out their search pattern, he looked down the driveway and saw Smokey slowly walking toward the house with the BBQ fork sticking out of his head.  He scooped Smokey up and brought him inside.  As they discussed what to do with Smokey, he offered food and water which Smokey gladly devoured.  Hughie volunteered to rush Smokey to his veterinarian, Dr. Smith of Cumberland Valley Animal Hospital, PSC.  We have many clients who work long hours and we open at 7:00am on Tuesdays and stay until 7:00pm to help them.  If Smokey had come home this late any other day, we would not have been in the office after 5:30pm.  According to our security footage, Hughie hurried through our doors at 6:59pm, just as the doors were about to close.  He hadn't even taken the time to grab his shirt on the way out the door.  Knowing that most businesses have very strict closing times and that he may be too late, he begged for help and tried to explain his situation.  Seeing that he was painting a picture of a regular dinner fork, he offered to bring Smokey inside.

Wilma Radford and Penny Smith spoke with Hughie for a few moments and Wilma carried Smokey to Dr. Keaton B. Smith for a preliminary evaluation.  Smokey's formidable injury posed more problems than just his health.  Would the family be able to afford to have Smokey radiographed, sedated, and the fork removed?  Or would they be forced to have him humanely euthanized?  Michelle Duncum's words "There's a puppy coming in with a fork in it's head" did not prepare Dr. Smith for the sight of a giant two-pronged cooking utensil sticking out of a tiny Dachshund/Chihuahua mixed puppy's skull.  After some of the shock wore off, Dr. Smith walked to the reception area to speak with Hughie about treatment options.  Money, of course, was going to be a major obstacle in the way of Smokey's further treatment.

Dr. Smith, having treated many strange cases in the past, like the Chow Chow who was under the wrong tree during a thunderstorm and had his paws and nose melted by lightning, realized that this was such a bizarre case that it would be a huge human-interest story.  He offered to treat Smokey completely at the hospital's expense IF Mr. Wagers and Mrs. Brumley would allow us to call the newspapers and publicize Smokey's story.  Knowing that this would be the only chance that Smokey would have of surviving his ordeal, Mr. Wagers agreed.

Dr. Smith was unwilling to call anyone immediately on the chance that removing the fork from Smokey's tender skull might result in an unfavorable outcome.  He wanted to know that Smokey would make it through the night before making him a celebrity.  The office staff grabbed their cell phones and began taking pictures of Smokey and his digital radiographs, Michelle Duncum's photos being the most widely circulated pictures.  When Dr. Smith arrived at the office Wednesday morning, July 8th, he found Smokey recovering much better than expected.  He promptly called London's local newspaper, The Sentinel-Echo, and the Lexington news station, WKYT 27 Newsfirst, to see if they were interested in doing a story on Smokey.

These were the only two outbound contacts made by our office.  Every other news agency has made first contact with us either by facebook, email, or phone.  Michelle Duncum been handling Public Relations for us and has either given interviews or arranged for interviews with The Times Tribune, Ripleys Believe It Or Not, The Today Show.  All other sources you will find on this story may have not come from us and may be sketchy if not completely incorrect.  If they do not have a link to http://cvahky.net or http://lappotato.com, consider them suspect. 

This page was last modified on Thursday, August 13, 2009 02:08:47 PM

UPDATES:

If any website has a button to click to BUY our photos, please report them for stealing our photographs for profit.  AOL was taken in by one such scam and posted that the scammer owned the photographs.  This is incorrect.  No photographs nor stories have been sold nor granted exclusively to anyone other than the original photographer or interviewee.  If you want photos, we have tons.  Just ask us or facebook us by clicking on our facebook badge.

After repeated calls from concerned animal lovers, our local animal shelter and police department have visited the home unofficially and found no reason to be suspicious of abuse.  People have been calling the police and the animal shelter ever since Smokey's story broke, and Smokey's owners have had no charges filed against them.  Smokey got face-to-face approval from this officer of a Florida Humane Society.  When she heard his story, she was concerned and examined him very closely.  She said he looks great and not at all like an abused animal.  If you know her, please tell her that Smokey says "Thank you."