By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
Bullet may be a coonhound, but he seems to have the nine lives of a cat.
In December, he was brought to the Humane Society Serving Crawford County by a Good Samaritan after being found with a suspected gunshot wound in the Orr Road area west of Ohio 19. There is also evidence that his left back leg was broken sometime in his life – possibly due to a trap – and had surgery done on it.
On Jan. 9, Bullet went missing from his foster home near Remlinger and Kyle roads. It wasn’t until 72 hours later that the humane society had an inkling of where Bullet may be.
Victoria Carmean, director of the local humane society, said the organization received a call – a Good Samaritan once again stepping up – about a dog barking in a flood area near to where Bullet went missing.
Humane agent Amy Smith and kennel technician Trisha Tackett took off for the rescue not knowing if it was Bullet, but determined to rescue the dog nonetheless. When they arrived in the area, a neighbor offered to drive them around the flood waters in a John Deere Gator utility vehicle.
“The flood waters were up really high,” recounted Smith. “It was a country block and he was stuck in the middle.”
Smith said they drove around trying to spot the still unknown dog, though they believed it was most likely Bullet as his coonhound bellows sounded through the trees.
“We started going around to all the different bridges where the rivers cross (under) the roads because we thought he was floating by them. We thought we’d be able to see him floating down the river,” Smith said.
They were unable to spot the dog and, eventually, they returned to their original spot and decided on another approach: they would wade out through the muddy waters to get to him. Being urged on by the knowledge that the river could still crest or the water could freeze overnight as the temperatures dropped, Smith and Tackett forged on.
“We just kept listening to him bark and just navigating through. I bet you we walked through almost a mile of water that was anywhere from our knee to waist deep,” she said.
Smith and Tackett kept up hope that the dog would keep barking as they followed the sound, but they refrained from calling out Bullet’s name for fear that he would move from his spot.
“I think he sensed us coming to him because all of a sudden his tone of bark was totally different,” Smith said. “It was awesome seeing his face when he saw us coming to get him. He was just so happy.”
Smith and Tackett confirmed it was Bullet they found as he ran toward them through the water, but his ordeal was not over yet. As he made his way to the two women, Bullet had to swim in some spots and, after spending 72 hours wandering the countryside, just did not have enough energy to climb over a log.
“We walked over to get him and it was awesome. He was like, ‘oh, thank you,’” Smith said.
Bullet, who was estimated to be between one and four years of age when he was brought to the humane society with a gunshot wound, was a bit too much for Smith or Tackett to carry. He made his way back to their vehicle on his own four feet.
Smith, who is familiar with the area where they found Bullet, said that if he would have been over 200 yards more then he could have been swept down the river.
Bullet was taken to the veterinarian after his ordeal. Though he lost weight during his three-day excursion and the pads of his paws were raw, he only needed antibiotics to be on the mend.
“He’s back in foster care and doing quite well,” Smith said. “It was just amazing that he went through all that. He was a survivor.”
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