After a bout with pain pills in September 2013, Patrick nursed me back to health after I left the hospital lucky to be alive.
I rescued Patrick from a pet store in August 2013, where he kept getting marked down in price. Nobody wanted him. He had already been in that store for eight months. I used to call him my little songbird because he would quietly howl to himself in his cage. He had completely given up on anyone taking him home. His little howls seemed to comfort him. Even though I already had two dogs, I couldn’t watch him be sad any longer. So I took him home and named him Patrick, after the late great Patrick Swayze, because I had always been saddened by the way he died.
By September 17, just one month later, I slipped into a five-day coma from all the pain pills I had been taking over the prior two weeks. On September 22, I left Lennox Hill Hospital in New York City, lucky to be alive. The hospital had recommended I stay at least another week, and I even had to sign formal discharge papers acknowledging that leaving was against medical advice.
The only reason I left the hospital early, despite the condition I was in, was for Patrick. I knew he was wondering where the man was that rescued him from the store just a few weeks prior. I knew he was feeling abandoned again. My two other dogs were fine. They’d been with me for years already and felt secure about life. The staff at the hospital took me to the lobby in a wheelchair. Then they handed me a cane and walked me outside on 77th street and Lexington Avenue. It took me an hour just to walk a few blocks to 74th street and 2nd Avenue. But, I didn’t care if took me 10 hours. I would’ve swam across oceans and moved mountains to see my boy.
As you can see in the covered collage picture on the Top right, Patrick was nursing back to heath after I left the hospital. Patrick was only 7 pounds, but could take me to my knees with just a stare. We were completely in love. He’s the reason I walked out of Lennox Hill Hospital with my life on September 22nd, 2013. He’s also the reason I turned my life around. I was so enamored and inspired by Patrick that I started writing about him every Tuesday.
The posts were titled “Happy Poppy Tuesday.” – Poppy was one of my many nicknames for Patrick. The underlying message of Poppy Tuesday was a message of hope. It was about the little boy that could. Eventually, I worked my other rescues into those weekly posts as well. If you have the time and patience, feel free to scroll through all those Tuesday posts from 2014 through July of 2018.
Tragically, 5 years later from the hospital incident, Patrick was killed by a car in Puerto Rico on August 19th, 2018. I died with him that day. I’ve never been the same and never will be. In October of 2018, I published a video about my life with Patrick, his death, animal rescue in general, and I introduced a new rescue of mine, BabyLady.
The video is very sad and heartwarming. But it ends on a high note with the introduction of rescued dog BabyLady. Believe it or not, the late great Patrick Swayze made a cameo appearance in the video and helped me introduce BabyLady to the world. The video will appear in a moment, so keep reading. Furthermore, after I took in BabyLady, over the next few months I pulled several more stray dogs off the streets and kept them too. I did that in Patrick’s honor. We are all together in South Florida now.
DriveWithCompassion(dot)com marches on in the name Sammy, Patrick and my survived Wolfpack.
Lastly, to everyone around the world, please Drive With Compassion. There are stray animals living in the streets.
This is a tribute video for Patrick and our life together. I also introduce my new dog, BabyLady, in this video. The late great Patrick Swayze even makes a cameo appearance at the end of the video and helps me introduce BabyLady to the world.
Sincerely,
Scott Smith, Sammy and Patrick’s human dad and General to the greatest Wolfpack in the history of the world.