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and that would have been or was being trained to kill, did not in fact kill him. The emergency room services were eliminated several years after Oogy was found, and all of the ER records are gone, so I have no way of knowing if its staff ever wrote down which police department brought him in. I was told that the ER staff would probably not have bothered to note the department because it wouldn’t have been relevant to treatment. I tried to locate the two doctors who had operated the ER to see what, if anything, they remembered, but I couldn’t track them down. As a result, I cannot determine how the police came to learn about and raid the drug-dealing operation, or where exactly the raid occurred, or what actually happened during the raid and what was found. I can’t learn the fate of any people who may have been there when the police burst in. I can never know how long Oogy lay in his cage and suffered or what that suffering consisted of. I will never know why his keepers did not kill him and put him out of his misery when they saw that the dog being trained to kill had not finished the job.

My investigation into the events that culminated in Oogy coming to live with us also revealed that after the police rescued him, Oogy survived largely because of one woman’s refusal to let him die and the efforts of a surgeon and veterinary staff who operated out of the purest of motives: to save the life of a helpless creature before them.

Diane Klein, the hospital administrator of AAH, began working with Dr. Bianco when she was just out of college, a year before he acquired the facility in 1989. The first year that the hospital was open for business, Dr. Bianco and Diane each worked one-hundred-hour weeks, yet Dr. Bianco did not generate enough income to feed his family by himself. Luckily, his wife was working at the time. For the first two years the hospital was open, Diane slept in a room on the second floor and constituted the entire staff. She worked as Dr. Bianco’s assistant, managed the schedule, paid the bills, ordered supplies, kept inventory, and clipped toenails. Diane had graduated from college with a degree in biology and aspired to become a veterinarian herself. When she started with Dr. Bianco, she was taking night courses with that goal in mind. As the volume of business increased and the staff grew, in appreciation of her dedication and skills, Dr. Bianco offered to pay for Diane to get a degree in veterinary medicine. By that time, though, Diane had married and had her first child, and she felt her time and energy were better spent focused on her family. Dr. Bianco then asked Diane to manage the office. Along the way, he also made her a partner in the business.

Both Dr. Bianco and Diane are completely committed to helping animals and will do whatever is required to achieve that end. They enjoy a professional relationship that is based on an implicit trust in each other’s judgment. Ardmore Animal Hospital’s national recognition reflects the professionalism and compassion that starts at the top.

“Diane loves gladiator dogs,” Dr. Bianco explained to me. “But, ultimately, her generosity goes beyond this. There is no purer animal lover. She has a special affinity for dogs not given a fair shake.” He paused, thought a moment, and then continued, “This business attracts a lot of people who relate better to animals than they do to humans. I’ve had more than one technician who rode with outlaw motorcycle gangs. I’ve had technicians who were literally incapable of speaking to my clients. Diane is a special blend of animal lover and people person. She is so dedicated to helping animals that she is very demanding of the staff.” He smiled. “I wouldn’t say the staff is afraid of her, but they certainly have a very healthy respect for her. The thing is, she is no more demanding of the staff than she is of herself.”

By her own admission, Diane would make a lousy animal rights advocate. “It must be the Italian in me. I have no tolerance for people who abuse animals. I’m not capable of reasoning with them. I couldn’t deal with these