Update on Arrow
He is back home 
First of all I would like to thank everyone for their prayers and kind words of solace and comfort. I was devastated last night and your responses helped immeasurably through the last 24 hours.
The full story (graphic) …
THUNK …
The engine coasts to a stop (I had already pulled the mixture, and the prop was winding down) and my heart stops (Sorry Wally). I jump out of the plane, images too gruesome to imagine flooding my head. As I rush to the front of the plane, I find Arrow, lying in an ever widening pool of blood beneath his head. He is doing his best imitation of Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs, convulsive breathing and exhaling blood rather than air. I grab a handfull of shop towels and apply pressure to the massive wound to his mandible, fully expecting him to die right there. His breathing relaxed, and I knew for sure that this was the end, he would not open his eyes, and the massive bleeding had stopped …
I ran to the front of the house, jumped in the truck, and tore around back to the hangar. I jumped out, to give Arrow some encouragement if he was still alive. He was consious now so I tried to calm him and opened up the door to the truck. By the time I had done that Arrow had staggered to his feet ( what was he thinking ??) and I rushed up to him and carried him to the cab. As luck would have it, and this was one of the few lucky events of the night, there was a blanket to cover Arrow. We sped off into the dusk, to the emergency clinic a mile down the road.
I get a chance to look at the damage while I wait for the damned stop lights. A gash from the nose and on back, down to the bone, laying open nasal, sinuses and a lot of stuff I didn’t understand and didn’t want to see… The clinic is closed, the emergency number yields a message to leave your number. Another vet down the road is at a residence, I leave a phone message and off we go to find him. A trip there yields nothing, no one is home. At this point Arrow, doped up on andrenaline (I guess) decides that this is just another ride to the store. He sits up, enjoys the ride, left half of his face falling off, snorting whenever blood drains into his nose (what nose is there). Really weird … We make a dash to yet another vet with night clinics and arrive there to see a sign that says ‘Closed tonight so our staff can attend classes in Macon’ Arrrrggggggg . About this time, Mr Transmission on the truck is getting a bit cranky, we slip and slide through town, no other vet is open, I am burning up, but I keep it warm inside to preclude shock to Arrow. We stop to pour fluid into the transmission and are off to check the vet residence again, hoping they got the message.
No joy … No hope … Back to my house … I start to call every vet I could find in the book. Which is what I should have done in the first place. I get a call from the vet at the residence who is in Macon tonight, it turns out that this was not the night to have pet trauma, most of the local vets were in Macon tonight for seminars, could we wait another 2 hours until they returned ??? During this call the first vet called back and said he could see us in 20 min (YIPEEE !!!) … and off we go (Thank God for slackers not at the seminar ).
I got to assist in sugery prep, and I drank a lot of beer in the parking lot outside. I love a vet next to a liquor store ::Big sigh:: Arrow is safe.
Epilogue:
Arrow is home now, but he is not a happy camper. The vet did a wonderful job, and even in the last 6 hours since he got home he looks much better. The swelling is down and he is breathing much better and through his nose. There are antibiotics and analgesics to administer, a follow up on Monday, and sutures to remove in a week.
We sat tonight, as the darkness fell, beside the runway, Oblio and Arrow, all is well.
Thanks again for your prayers and support.
Oblio N’ Arrow