Three years ago, Kelly Jernigan, a captain with the Winston-Salem Fire Department in North Carolina, adopted two Dobermans who’d had a rough life.
When one of them, Zion, first ventured out in his new backyard, “it’s almost like he had never seen grass before,” Jernigan told WGHP.
Sadly, Zion was later diagnosed with cancer. On Tuesday, Jernigan made the difficult decision to end her beloved 11-year-old dog’s suffering. His death had Jernigan “down all day yesterday and all day today,” she said on Wednesday.
Later that day, the fire department got a call about an apartment building on fire. As Jernigan and her fellow firefighters were making sure everyone had evacuated safely from the building, they heard barking. It was a small dog, named Cinnamon, who was alone in one of the apartments while her owner, Ann Love, was at work.
Jernigan gently lifted the frightened dog into her arms and carried her out of the building.
“Just getting her, you can tell she’s very skittish and I would be, too,” she told WGHP. “You know, somebody coming up looking like this, with helmets and gloves.”
Rescuing Cinnamon was “kind of good timing for me,” Jernigan said. “It kind of helps me heal.” She brought Cinnamon inside the cab of a fire truck and gave her water. She probably got a good, much-needed laugh when the little dog accidentally sounded the siren.
Jernigan then rigged up a makeshift leash and walked Cinnamon over to her grateful owner, who had rushed home from work when she heard about the fire.
Cinnamon jumped up into her crying dog mom’s arms. “To know that she was okay, it made my day,” Love told WGHP. “I love her.”
It made Jernigan’s day as well. “Once I got my hands on this one, it’s like all is right with the world,” she told WGHP.
Three people were displaced by the fire, WGHP reports, but fortunately no one — with two legs or four legs — was injured, thanks to the heroic efforts of Jernigan and her colleagues.
Tissue alert: WGHP captured Jernigan’s rescue of Cinnamon in this video.
Over the past couple of weeks, three women — who are apparently lacking in brains as well as compassion — have made disturbing Facebook posts regarding their dogs.
Fortunately, concerned Facebook users contacted authorities, and two of the women are now facing animal cruelty charges. All the dogs are safe. One of them is already in a loving new home, while another must stay with his loser owner.
Kimberly Ann Howell: Posted Pictures of Dog’s Snout Wrapped with Duct Tape
Kimberly Ann Howell of Salisbury, N.C., was tired of her dog’s incessant barking. So, did she bother trying to train the mixed-breed pup to stop this annoying habit? Nah, that would take too much effort.
Instead, this loser wrapped duct tape around the dog’s snout — and then posted pictures on Facebook.
“Hah, hah,” she wrote.
No one else thought it was funny. Authorities were contacted, and Howell was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor count of animal cruelty. She insisted she’d only done it as a joke, and had removed the duct tape after she took the pictures of the unhappy dog. Hah, hah.
Along with animal cruelty, Howell was charged with failing to appear in court on two previous traffic charges. She was jailed on $3,000 bail and has a court date of Nov. 4, according to the Charlotte Observer.
Fortunately the dog wasn’t injured, Ryan Barkely (ironic name, isn’t it?) of the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, which investigated the case, said in a statement, USA TODAY reports.
Unfortunately, because the dog showed “no apparent injuries or signs of neglect or mistreatment,” according to Barkely, the poor pup will not be taken away from Howell.
DEC. 3, 2015 UPDATE: Howell was convicted today of animal cruelty, WBTV reports. She was sentenced to 18 months probation and assigned 36 hours of community service. Judge Kevin Eddinger, who called what Howell did a “callous act,” said he would prefer she performs her community service at animal control.
Cherica Winston: ‘Imma keep shooting her with this tazer and bb gun’
Don’t hire Cherica Winston of Aurora, Colo., as a dog sitter.
“$50 bucks and you can have this damn pitt,” she posted on her Facebook page over the weekend. “Imma keep shooting her with this tazer and bb gun till she’s gone…”
Travis Smith, a friend of Winston’s, contacted the Aurora Police Dept., and officers were sent to her home to investigate. Although they didn’t find a taser or BB gun, they did find a small dog locked in a crate with no water or food.
“There was an awful smell,” Sgt. Chris Amsler told FOX31. “The animal had been peeing in the crate and was soaked in the urine.”
Winston was charged with animal cruelty, but faces no charges for her Facebook post because there was no evidence the dog had been shot.
Smith told FOX31 that when he saw Winston’s disturbing Facebook post, “My immediate reaction is, ‘Oh, my God!’ I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
When Smith confronted Winston her about her post, she “mouthed off” to him, he said.
“This is a great example of how a group of people saw something that concerned them, told us and we were able to get successful resolution,” Amsler told FOX31.
The dog — who may or may not be a Pit Bull, a breed that’s banned in Aurora — is being cared for by the Aurora Animal Shelter. Winston is due in court Oct. 27.
Unidentified Texas Woman: ‘I need someone to come shoot my dog’
“I need someone to come shoot my dog,” wrote an unidentified woman from Troup, Texas, on her Facebook page Sept. 17.
“No one here has the heart to do it. We will provide the gun.”
The woman later told authorities she wanted Cinnamon, her 3-year-old Saint Bernard/English Bulldog mix, killed because the dog kept getting into the garbage.
“It’s devastating,” Nanette Moss of Smith County Animal Control, the shelter to which Cinnamon was taken, told KHOU. “I work with these dogs every day. They are my life, and when she walked through my door it just broke my heart. She’s a sweet dog and how can somebody shoot a sweet dog?”
The woman is facing no charges because she surrendered Cinnamon to animal control.
As for Cinnamon, she is now in a loving forever home, according to KYTX. She was officially adopted Sept. 21 by Theresa Vail, who had originally planned just to foster her.
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