VPI Hambone Award

Pal, the 3-year-old Vizsla, loves to roam the many acres of undeveloped land next to his home. The sporting dog tracks and hunts anything that moves: small animals, insects and, unfortunately, golf carts.

“He loves to cut around our golf cart tracking the different scents,” said Lori Myers of West Palm Beach, Fla. “My son and I were driving the cart slowly, talking and enjoying the sunset, when Pal ran right in front of us. The cart hit him from behind and knocked him off balance. When he fell over, the cart rolled over his back leg.”

Pal howled in pain and stood startled with his injured leg in the air. Myers quickly drove back home with Pal in the cart and rushed him to the veterinarian’s office. Pal’s veterinarian inspected the leg and determined that, besides some minor road rash, Pal would likely be all right. The veterinarian told Myers to monitor Pal’s use of the injured leg and, on the discharge instructions, recommended “no golf for Pal for at least one week.”

“I was so glad that he wasn’t seriously injured,” said Myers. “Obviously, I felt horrible for not noticing he had run in front of the cart, but I learned my lesson. You can’t talk, drive a golf cart and watch a dog at the same time.”