One Dog's Lucky Day: A Rescue Story

March 21, 2007 — -- Imagine this situation: A dog is hit by a car and injured. A police officer says the dog is beyond saving, and he is going to shoot her in the head to end her suffering. Would you intervene?

The dog is named Skye Bleu. Dawn Julian, her owner, got her as a sickly puppy -- near death -- and nursed her back to health. In fact, Julian suffers from mental illness, so Skye Bleu was an important companion that she likened to a "service dog."

A few months ago, Julian moved to a new home, and she temporarily left Skye Bleu with a friend during the move. The dog got away and was hit by a car along a busy stretch of highway in Salisbury, N.C.

One driver, Bobbi Parke, spotted the dog trying to lift her head up. "I went up the road and I knew I had to help. I turned around and I cried for a minute, because I was afraid of what I was going to find -- and I called 911."

Parke joined other drivers who were already at the scene. Kathleen Bostian said her heart was breaking as she petted the dog.

"There was blood coming out of one eye, and she didn't seem to be able to move her back legs," Bostian said.

After numerous frantic calls by passing drivers and bystanders at the scene, the 911 dispatcher finally said, "Yes, we've received several calls. We have an officer on the way."

As Officer Bill Smith assessed the situation, he said: "I'm not trained in veterinarian medicine. I looked at the dog. [She] had lacerations on [her] body and was not able to get up from the runway at all."

Smith called his sergeant three times to explain the injuries. The sergeant advised him to put the dog down.

Parke overheard the orders and began to challenge police: "That's not acceptable," she told police. She stood near the dog and started praying.

Another driver, Mike Snyder, recalled, "One of the ladies offered to pay for the vet bill if they [the police] would take it to the vet, and he wouldn't do it."

Bostian added, "'I'm not allowed to do that,' he kept telling us."