#2 June 8th - we talk to the sheriff

Once we were home from the veterinary hospital the evening of June 7, 2008, I picked up the phone and called the sheriff's department of the county in Michigan where this had happened. An officer answered the phone and I said, "can someone just shoot your dog?" The answer was, "well, no, it's not legal to just shoot a dog, what happened?" So I told the officer on the other end of the phone the story I just told you. She said, "give me your name and number and I will have someone call you back". True to her word, a while later the phone rang and it was a Sergeant with the sheriff's department. She took my statement and informed me that it didn't matter if Harry had permission to be there or not, didn't matter if it was private property or not, didn't matter if the land was posted or not, it is a felony in the state of Michigan to shoot someone's dog. (It's also a felony in Indiana, but since it all happened in Michigan, it was the Michigan law that mattered.) The Sergeant asked to talk to Harry. Harry got on the phone and answered her questions and we agreed to meet the Sergeant at the little quarry the next day. Ok, now someone was going to have to pay for what he did to our dog. I was still miserable but at least I knew there would be consequences.

In the mean time poor Wiley couldn't understand where Abby had disappeared to. Wiley has always followed Abby's lead. He won't even take a cookie from your hand unless Abby has already taken hers. Poor puppy was really moping. He wouldn't eat and wouldn't go out he just laid there looking sad. Topaz tried to comfort him by doing his usual rubbing his face all over Wiley's face and licking his eyes, but Wiley just turned away from the sympathetic cat. Things were going to be different from now on.

Now it's Sunday, June 8th, I even skipped church because I knew I wouldn't be home in time to go with Harry to meet the Sergeant, I had, after all, been the one to call her in the first place so I really did have to be there. We had been instructed to meet her at the entrance to the quarry, which was fine by me, no way did I want to go on that property without law enforcement present.

We got there a bit early and just sat in our car at the edge of the road. A couple pick up trucks went by but none were the truck Harry had seen the day before. Finally a sheriff's car comes around the corner. She was here.



We followed the Sergeant into the quarry, drove around to where Harry had been parked that day and stopped. I stayed in the car but Harry got out and showed the Sergeant where he had been, where Abby had been and where the shots had come from. As he was showing her two more sheriff's cars pulled in. One was K9 unit. The office of the K9 unit came right over to me and asked me how our dog was doing, I told him that she was going to make it but it would be a long healing process.

Once they had determined where everyone had been one of the office's left and came back a few minutes later with a man. He looked very much like the driver of one of the trucks that had passed us while we were waiting at the side of the road for the Sergeant to arrive. They asked Harry if this was the man he had spoken to, Harry said no, he had never met this person before, the man agreed that he had never met Harry either but that it was his father that owned the land. After some discussion they determined that it was probably this man's younger brother that Harry had spoken with. They finished their discussion and the man left. The Sergeant told us that it was out of our hands now, the sheriff's department would take it from here, and we could leave.




As all this was taking place, Abby was still at the hospital in Ft. Wayne. We called a number of times and they said they were keeping her on pain pills and antibiotics until the surgeon could assess her situation on Monday, that she was doing fine and able to walk and eat. She was even wagging her tail.

Poor WIley just didn't know what to think without Abby around. She had always been there for him. We decided to get Wiley about four and half years ago. Abby was getting fat, lazy and bored. She didn't even want to go out in the back yard anymore, so we decided to go to our local humane shelter (where I had found her about four years ealier) to find her a friend. As we walked through the shelter that day so many years ago, all the dogs were barking and jumping up and making their usual "pick me, pick me" attempts, all, that is, but one. There was one very pretty golden retriever pup that was just laying in his cage looking up at us with warm brown eyes. He seemed so calm and quiet. "That one", we said. The lady that was showing us through the shelter said, "are you sure you want that one?" We said, "yes, why?" "Well", she said, "he's about seven months old and when he got here about four months ago we found him at the bottom of the drive way in a burlap sack, he had been badly beaten, or maybe hit by a car." Well, that was enough for us, poor baby needed a good home with loving people. We decided to bring Abby to the shelter to meet this new guy and make sure that they would get along before we took him home.

The next day we took Abby to meet Wiley. He pretty much freaked out when I tried to take him out of his cage, but after I caught up with him, I was able to calm him down and take him into the other room where Abby was waiting. They hit it off wonderfully, both got into the "play stance", you know, butt up in the air, front feet out as far as they can go. It was so cute to watch them play. The shelter people were very happy with Wiley's response to us and Abby, he had found his new family. We took them home and it took no time at all for Wiley to warm up to all of us. We did notice, however, that Wiley doesn't trust just anyone and it takes him much longer to get to know men than women. He's frightened of men with hats especially. Poor boy, we decided it was probably a man that wore a ball cap that had beat him and left him in the drive of the shelter. He's been happily adjusted since joining our family but has always looked to Abby for direction. Where she goes, he follows, he waits for her to eat before he does, waits for her to take her cookie before he will accept his. Not having her home has been very depressing for him, even Topaz doesn't seem to cheer him up and he and Topaz have a very special relationship, but then, that is another story.

That is our introduction of Wiley, he's a sweetheart and loves Abby dearly. We'll be back later with more of Abby's story. In the interim, pass this on to all the animals lovers you know. We need to get some financial aid built up for other pets that need medical attenetion due to cruelty and accidents. Again, donations can be sent directly to The Abby Fund, Pokagon Verterinary Hospital, 2520 US HWY 20, Angola, IN 46703.