Dog's injuries prompt reward

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

Somehow, and ironically, it helps to think “Mikey” was hit by a car.
Photos of the injured dog, a year-old boxer, were difficult to look at. Snapped through the wire diamonds of a cage at Smyth County Animal Shelter, they showed red covering his white muzzle. But more disturbing was the red in his left eye that protruded, exposed, out of place, ruined.
An accident that leaves a dog bloodied and with a burst eye is easier to accept than the possibility that abuse made its face grisly and repulsive. But abuse is what Caroline Watembach of Saving Furry Friends animal rescue in Saltville suspects left the dog injured and wandering on Chestnut Ridge Road.
Smyth County Animal Shelter officials gave her an hour Monday to pick up the unknown dog dubbed Mikey before they would administer euthanasia to let him escape the trauma.
After performing surgery Monday to remove the damaged eye and patch up the dog,
veterinarian Dr. Matthew Garret in Damascus could confirm neither accident nor abuse as the cause of Mikey’s wounds, Watembach said.
“I’m going with intentional,” Watembach said. “I noticed he had no collar, but there was a mark where a collar had been. He had not been without a collar for very long.”
Watembach said the same clue could indicate the dog had been tied out but slipped his collar and ended up on a road. But perhaps it is experience and instinct that take her back to her original conclusion.
An attorney friend of Watembach’s agreed and sent $500 for a reward for an arrest and conviction for animal cruelty. By Tuesday, Watembach said other donors had increased the reward to $700, and the level could go higher. She was awaiting word about support that could come from another animal rescue operation.
“Somebody probably knows who did this,” Watembach said Monday. “If it is an accident, then nobody comes forward. But if it’s intentional, $500 goes a long way around here. Please come forward.”
Mikey’s weight, an emaciated 36 pounds, leads Smyth County Chief Animal Control Officer Bill Turman to suspect the dog had been in confinement. His injures were classified only as trauma whose cause “can’t be determined,” Turman said. It could be intentional or he could have been hit by a car. He was in pretty sad shape. He could have been wandering around in the national forest, but normally, if they are not confined, they won’t be fat, but not that severely undernourished. They’ll find something to eat, but it may not be the best. In my experience, they have to be confined to look like that.”
The dog “was given a 1 on the BMI scale,” Watembach said. “If he were a stray he would have found trash or road kill to eat.”
Mikey survived the surgery. Calling from the veterinarian’s office around 4 p.m. Monday, a relieved Watenbach wept when she thought of her earlier reluctance to touch the dog with his repugnant injuries.
“Mikey did so well that Dr. Garrett released him to us to take home as there was no point in keeping him at the hospital overnight, as it is not staffed,” Watembach said.
Mikey, however, did not receive a clean bill of health. He was found to be anemic, and while Mikey was under anesthesia, the veterinarian noticed a small tumor on the dog’s leg.
Watembach said the tumor is thought to be non-cancerous, but “Dr. Garrett did not remove it as having Mikey under any anesthesia was risky given his emaciated state and the fact that he is anemic. That will be done at a later date when Mikey is at a healthy weight.”
Injected with two pain medications, an antibiotic and a nutritional supplement, Mikey left the veterinarian’s office to begin a new life, starting at Watembach’s rescue where he will await adoption.
Gone was his eye, and the blood. Left behind were questions about what happened to him. Watembach said if his injuries were accidental, then the painful lesson Mikey the boxer is teaching is that pet owners should be more responsible for their charges’ safety.
If the injuries were intentionally inflicted, Watembach has a $700 stimulus package she hopes will create an arrest and conviction.

dkegley@wythenews.com