Ha!! I have 4 dogs....all rescues. They are living the dream. I know people who hope they die and come back as one of my dogs. They are horribly spoiled for sure.
Hope you get the gear box out without cutting the hell out of everything. You may get by with what jPar said, and if you get there and it's close, you can drop the headers down and see if that helps.
What a bummer.