North Carolina Archives - i Still Love Dogs

Hero Pit Bull Takes 4 Bullets During Armed Robbery (He’s OK!)

Todd Lane was walking up to his home in Wilmington, N.C., Monday night with Skylar, his 12-year-old Pit Bull, when a man behind them said, “Gimme that.”

The stranger was referring to the money Lane had just won from a scratch-off lottery ticket. But before Lane could reach for his wallet, the robber started shooting.

Grazed by a bullet, Lane fell to the ground. Skylar immediately took action to protect his owner.

“He charged after the dude with the gun and that guy shot the dog four times,” Lane told WWAY. “They found four different shots in him.”

The robber fired at least eight shots before running off. Two shots were fired into Lane’s living room, where people were watching TV. Fortunately, no one inside the house was hurt.

And fortunately for Skylar, the hero dog survived the shooting. Two bullets grazed him. One went through his upper lip. But the other bullet shattered his front left paw, requiring reconstructive surgery so he can walk. Because Skylar has arthritis in his shoulder, amputation was not an option.

Lane’s niece, Tina King, launched a GoFundMe campaign to help raise funds to cover the expensive surgery. As of today, it’s raised nearly $4,000.

“Right now with the coronavirus a lot of people are short with money and it’s hard,” KIng told WWAY. “So it’s hard asking people for money, but a lot of people have given $5 and my sweet friend Courtney gave $500.”

Lane is grateful not only for Skylar but for the community’s generosity in helping to pay the hero dog’s veterinary bills. “It ain’t me that’s saved his life, it’s this community,” he told WWAY. “All the funds they have given me, all the support they have given me, and everything they’re doing for my dog has literally saved his life.”

Skylar was able to return home from the animal hospital yesterday. He’s recovering but will need another surgery.

The hero pit bull “saved me,” Lane told WWAY. “I mean, you always wonder, would your dog take a bullet for you? And I found the case out. He took four for me. He’s a great dog.”

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Wilmington Police Department at 910-452-6120.

You can make a donation to help pay for Skylar’s vet bills through the Justice for Skylar – Vet Bill Assistance GoFundMe page.

Photo: GoFundMe.com

RIP Pickles: 5-Pound Dog Saves Family from Bear

A toy Poodle named Pickles may have weighed only 5 pounds, but he wasn’t afraid to stand up to a bear weighing 150 to 200 pounds that entered his home in Black Mountain, N.C., early Friday morning.

“I thought I was gonna die,” Tiffany Merrill, Pickles’ owner, told WNCT. She had opened a door to let her little dog out for his morning walk when the aggressive intruder walked inside the house.

Merrill’s two children were asleep in their bedrooms. She knew that if she ran to them, the bear would chase after her and perhaps kill them all. So, yelling to her kids to close their doors, she tried to hide behind a couch — but the bear jumped on the couch.

As Merrill envisioned the bear killing her and then her children, she heard Pickles barking. Her dog was able to chase the bear outside. As Merrill watched in horror, Pickles and the bear got into a scuffle.

“There was nothing I could do,” Merrill told WLOS. “I wanted to go out there and jump on the back of the bear and save my dog.”

Amazingly, Pickles initially survived his attack by the bear nearly 40 times his size, but the hero dog died after Merrill rushed him to a veterinarian. “He did not make it — he died saving my life,” Merrill wrote on Facebook.

Pickles had been a member of the Merrill family for four years. “He was always with me,” Merrill told WNCT. “If I stayed up late, he stayed up late. If I wanted to go somewhere, he wanted to go somewhere.”

Merrill hopes her dog’s tragic death will make her neighbors more aware of bears and encourage them to take precautions to protect all their family members.

How to Protect Your Family from Bears

Education specialist Lauren Pyle with the Western North Carolina Nature Center told WLOS there’s been a lot of bear activity in the area, which is expected to increase even more as the weather cools and these animals prepare for hibernation.

Pyle said she doesn’t know for sure why the bear entered Merrill’s house, but she said these incidents usually happen when bears become too accustomed to people. “They’re definitely going to be hungry now,” she told WLOS. “They’re definitely opportunists when it comes to finding food, so they will go after whatever is easiest.”

If there are bears near where you live, Pyle offers these tips:

Never approach a bear.
Keep your property as clean as possible. “Like the trash being left overnight or unsecured, or bird feeders, or outside pet food storage, or even just BBQ grills that are left out with all that juicy, meaty goodness all over it,” she told WLOS.
Remember that bears are actually afraid of people. If they do start running, it doesn’t mean they’ll want to run right up to you.

Photo: Tiffany Merrill/Facebook

12-Year-Old Aussie Shepherd Survives Being Picked Up by Tornado

The dog’s name is Duke, not Toto, and he lives in North Carolina, not Kansas — but the tornado this 12-year-old Australian Shepherd experienced was a little like something out of “The Wizard of Oz.”

When the tornado passed through Davie County three weeks ago, Duke was “picked up in the mass of the swirling wind, picked up and tossed just like a rag doll,” his dog dad, Lewis Vannoy, told WREG.

Duke was thrown about 1,000 feet, landing in a pasture. Miraculously, the senior dog survived the ordeal. He did have major injuries, including a broken leg and damaged retina, but the lucky guy is expected to make a full recovery. (Amazingly, so is Vannoy’s horse, who was also picked up by the twister.)

Vannoy is thankful to still have Duke and his horse, although his house was pretty much destroyed in just 35 seconds, he said.

“I’ll build another house and we will make more memories,” Vannoy told WREG.

Keep Your Dog Safe During a Tornado

Vannoy urges everyone to take cover, with your pets, when there’s a tornado warning, which seems like really solid advice.

Here are more safety tips from the Humane Society of the United States:

Bring your dogs and other pets inside your house.
Keep emergency pet supplies in a tornado-proof room or basement.
Make sure your dog is microchipped and wearing a collar and identification tag at all times.
Practice getting your dog into a tornado-safe area.
Make sure that the area is dog friendly by removing dangerous items like tools or toxic products.
If you have to evacuate, take your pets and their emergency supplies with you.
After the tornado, take special care of your dog and other pets. Keep your dog on a leash and don’t allow him to roam.

Photo via YouTube

Golden Retriever Runs Away to Doggie Daycare

Riley, a 5-year-old Golden Retriever from Belmont, N.C., was determined to go to his doggie daycare center — even if his dog mom, Tonia Mosteller, didn’t take him there herself.

When Mosteller drove Riley past the Happy Dog Cafe and Daycare last Saturday, Riley started whimpering when he saw a group of dogs being walked by a staff member. Mosteller told him it wasn’t his day to visit the daycare he’s been going to most of his life.

After dropping Riley off at home before she took off to run errands, Mosteller told WBTV that as he lay on the backyard deck, the dog “was watching me carefully as I left, but I didn’t think too much about it.”

Within an hour, Riley managed to escape from the yard and walk more than a mile to the front door of Happy Dog.

“I walked outside to see if Tonia was right behind him, and she wasn’t,” the daycare’s owner, Teresa McCarter, told WBTV. “He knows the way up here because they walk him all the time, and he just decided to put himself in daycare that day.”

Riley ran inside and went directly to the area where his pals were playing.

McCarter called Mosteller to let her know of Riley’s whereabouts — and told her he could spend the day there.

“He got a free day of daycare and he worked really hard for that day,” McCarter told WBTV.

Mosteller plans to make her fence escape-proof and take Riley to Happy Dog Cafe and Daycare more often. She told WBTV his escape was “a true testimony to how much he loves Happy Dog and the staff there.”

A post on its Facebook page says the daycare “is extremely grateful that Riley made his adventure safely to your Happy Dog Cafe. We LOVE dogs and Riley’s story is proof.”

The clever WBTV news report shows Riley’s escape from a dog’s-eye view.

Photo via Facebook

PetSmart Employees Apparently OK with Customer Carrying Dog by Collar

Earlier this week, a customer at a PetSmart store in Greenville, N.C., carried his puppy around by its collar, sometimes giving the dangling dog a good shake.

Perhaps taking the saying, “The customer is always right,” way too far, not a single PetSmart employee confronted the man about the abusive way he was carrying his dog.

A photo of the man holding the dog by its collar at the checkout stand is going viral. “He put the dog on the conveyor belt to have the harness rang up,” the caption says.

The photo, taken late Tuesday afternoon, was posted the next day on Facebook by Tammy Mitchell Whaley. An employee told her friend she was afraid to say anything to the man because she feared losing her job if she did so. Whaley called the store manager, who told her he didn’t know why no one reported the incident.

“This is suppose to be a place of business that cares and supports animals?” Whaley wrote.

On Thursday, Sheriff Neil Elks posted the photo on the Pitt County Sheriff Facebook page.

“Thank you for caring about our community and the people and creatures that live here,” he wrote.

“We have gotten other messages from you, the concerned public, and want you to know that this behavior is disturbing to us, as well. Because the location is in Greenville city limits, the sheriff has directed the witness to contact Greenville Animal Control.”

PetSmart has not commented on the photo. If you want to voice your concern, the corporate office can be reached by phone at 888-839-9638 or by filling out this form.

More disturbingly, Elks wrote that his department has “seen several alarming cases recently of animal abuse.”

Photo via Facebook