The Murder Of My Dog - Part 2

Please refer to "The Murder Of My Dog - Part 1"

I have once already lost a dear friend through tragic circumstances.

I live with my father now.

I had a boyfriend who had a dog called Leo... But he didn't look after him very well so I decided to adopt him. But it was more a case of Leo adopting me... He was such an excitable dog. He would jump up on me every time he saw me, happy to see me.

When i first got him I cleaned him up. De-ticked him, bathed him, combed him... Not that it helped, he loved to go roll in the dirt

I had a new boyfriend who worked at a service station down the road... Leo would walk down there during the day and hang out with him, he'd often sneak in the back door and lay INSIDE the shop in the air-conditioning. My boyfriend would sometimes give him a bit of ice cream that had melted.

That dog brought me to life when I was going through a hard time (I am still mourning the loss of my first pet)

Everyone knew him and loved him...

The night before he died i gave him a bath and he slept next to my bed.

I woke up the next morning to my step mum saying to my dad "Phil, come here... there's something wrong with Leo" I knew something was wrong immediately and got out of bed. Leo was in the laundry (He'd spent the morning laying down in the shower recess) his back legs had become paralyzed and he couldn't get up... At first we thought he had been bitten by a snake... But there was no sign of a bite, and he hadn't been outside all morning.

We rang the vet who was luckily in town at the time (we live in a very small country town) she came around quickly, and by this time, Leo was fully paralyzed and had started fitting. My step mum and I were holding him, comforting him. We had to place a folded up towel under his head to stop him from bashing his head on the tiles...

The vet made some calls and described his condition... His symptoms were very similar to that of what would happen when a dog gets baited. And the suspected poison was strychnine... He had no hope.

He lasted about 5 - 10 minutes before he had one last fit and his body gave up... I SAW him die... It was just awful.

I had this overwhelming feeling of "I can't believe this is happening AGAIN"

We spent the rest of the day digging a hole for him... We planted a tree on him, the "Leo tree"

About 15 baits were dropped around our area, killing a total of around 10 - 15 dogs. The culprit still remains unknown, we will probably never find out... There only remains that one clue, that they used strychnine - You need a license to obtain it.

I feel empty. I have lost my faith in humanity.

The Murder Of My Dog - Part 1

OK, So I'm new here...

A few days ago was the first anniversary of our family dogs death. Her name was Sophie, A Miniature Pincher X Chihuahua.

She was 14 years old, and I hadn't known a day in my life without her.

On the 1st of March 2009, I left my mums place for a flight to Adelaide, I was meeting a friend. We were living in Port Lincoln, South Australia.

After I left my mum decided to take our dogs for a walk, we had just recently got a new dog - A big, bouncy boxer called Ollie, Or Olivia. Anyone who has a boxer will know, they are VERY energetic, and simply cannot be exercised on a leash (They end up literally dragging you around)

We would regularly go to a big park at the end of our street... It was more like a bit of bush land than a park. It was about the size of a block, and it was all trees scrub. We DO have laws here that state we have to put our dogs on a leash when in public, but most people don't worry about it and no one ever gets in trouble for it. So of course, we let our boxer off the leash for some exercise, she rarely runs away (Unless she see's a cat or another dog) and would never hurt anyone, people just get scared because she's very big and boisterous.

As for our Sophie, we hardly ever put her on a leash as she NEVER ran away, all she did was totter along beside us... So my mum was in the park with the 2 dogs off the leash when she spotted a man and his wife walking their dog along the boundary of the park, Ollie spotted them of course and went over to say hello. The man then started yelling abuse at my mum, telling her to put her dog back on the leash. He also threw rocks, while his wife egged him on.

We had NEVER met this man in our life, we had only just moved to the town a month ago.

He kept on saying how his dog would chew ours to bits, and stuff like that... But by the looks of it the dog was pretty docile.

My mum was pretty shocked by what had just happened so she decided to go to a friends house just up the road a bit further... Unfortunately the man and his wife were heading in the same direction - presumably back to their house. Mum put Ollie back on the leash and made her way to her friends house, following the couple but keeping her distance.

They then saw that she was "following" them and started yelling abuse once again... Accusing her of following them and such... My mum ignored them and continued on her way, then at one stage she ended up on the opposite side of the road to them... This was when our little Sophie (not on a leash) decided to go and say hello to this man, his wife and there dog.

The man, being in a fit of rage, kicked our dog. Like a football, she flew through the air. She hit the ground and did not get up. My mum picked Sophie up, telling the couple that they were bad people and to look at what they'd done. She then took Sophie and hurried to her friends house, by this stage being very close by. Her friend rang the vet straight away and they drove down there ASAP. But it was too late. Sophie died in my mums arms at the vet.

It makes me very emotional just writing this... It has traumatized me beyond belief to hear about these details. To imagine my poor Sophie's helpless body on the ground. It's just horrible.

The vet took Sophie and did an autopsy. My mum was so upset, she didn't even call me... I got a call from my sister a few days later, I couldn't believe it. I came back home straight away.

We all felt distraught, my mum took days off work...

We contacted the RSPCA and made a complaint... We had a woman come around and talk to us, she was very good. We gave her the full details of what happened and a disk of photos.

Looking back in old photos now, there is not one that doesn't include Sophie. She was always there.

A few weeks later we got the autopsy report: She was in excellent health, her injuries included broken ribs on the side which she was kicked, puncturing several organs. Consistent with what my mum had told the vet. The police had been to see the man to notify him that legal action was being taken.

I struggled to come to terms with everything that had happened, i couldn't understand the motive, or how anyone could do such a thing. Not a day went by that I didn't think about spray painting his precious Jeep car or maybe even confronting him. I wanted him to hurt like I did.

To cut a long story short... He was only fined $3000 and vet fees. He maintained his innocence, saying he only "nudged" the dog. We later learned that his name was Joseph Perry, and his wife was a school counselor at the local public school! They had one child and a dog. They didn't get their dog confiscated.

We moved house again after all this, we couldn't live there with the memories.

I had nightmares about Sophie...

I want to keep this short as it's still hard to talk about and I don't know every little detail....

Our story was published in several papers.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-a...3-1225782523371

Sophie was cremated and her ashes spread at our old farm - She loved it there.

Thankyou for listening to my story.