From being the victim of a crime, to suffering a possible concussion, and then losing his dog, October was not off to a good start for Josh Harrell.
On Wednesday, Oct. 1, someone broke into his house. The whole place was ransacked, although fortunately, nothing seemed to be missing. The next morning, his dog, Ellie, escaped from the fence in Harrell’s Plant City yard.
“She’s done it a couple times,” Harrell said. “I was afraid somebody had snatched her up.”
Harrell saw Ellie escape and ran after her, but he slipped and hit his head on the fence. He went inside to lie down and ended up unconscious for 14 hours, possibly suffering a concussion. His injury allowed Ellie plenty of time to explore the neighborhood unsupervised.
A few hours later, Chuck Sullivan was driving along Park Road and came across a dog that looked as though it had been hit by a car.
“She couldn’t move,” Sullivan said. “I think she was in shock, and she was certainly injured. Somebody had hit this poor dog and just left her, and that’s what really bothered me.”
Ironically, Sullivan’s own two dogs had gone missing just two days before Harrell’s. A man who lived in the Madison Park Road apartments, right near where Ellie got hit, had found the dogs and called Sullivan to return them.
“I wasn’t about to leave (Ellie) there,” Sullivan said. “My dogs had been gone, and I was in that mode.”
Sullivan wasn’t able to identify the 70-pound dog or her owner. Harrell doesn’t always keep Ellie’s collar on her, because she has a lot of extra skin around her neck that makes it uncomfortable. But, despite the consequence of getting blood on his clothes and car, Sullivan loaded the dog in and took her to the Animal Clinic at Southside.
At first, the veterinarian suggested euthanizing Ellie. To Sullivan, this was unacceptable.
“I said, ‘I’ll pay for it. Just take care of her,’” Sullivan said. “It’s not that I’m in the habit of paying for other people’s pet care, but she was just so sweet, and I couldn’t look past her pleading eyes.”
Ellie had no broken bones, but she did sustain other injuries.
“Her heart got pushed up into her chest,” Harrell said. “Her shoulder was all messed up, and she had bruised ribs.”
Sullivan paid for Ellie’s $300 treatment without a second thought. And, he would have been willing to adopt her, if her owner had not been found.
REUNION
After Harrell regained consciousness, he began searching for Ellie and posting notices on social media platforms. The next day, Friday, Oct. 3, he got a call from his mom. She had seen a post on a Facebook page, Lost and Found Pets of Hillsborough County, that had a picture of a dog she thought was Ellie. Harrell’s mom found out that the dog was at the Animal Clinic at Southside, and she told Harrell, who rushed over.
“When I went in there and she heard my voice, she starting yelling at me, like barking,” Harrell said. “You could tell she was hurting, but she was definitely excited to see me.”
Sullivan had gone back to the clinic to check on Ellie, and Harrell arrived around the same time. Harrell expressed his gratitude to Sullivan for rescuing his canine companion. Sullivan did not make Harrell reimburse him for the treatment fees.
Ellie’s recovery took a few days, but now she is at home, safe and sound — and maybe the traumatic experience will deter her from venturing out of her yard the next time she considers it.
“She is a doofus,” Harrell said. “She has a hound-dog personality — dopey, but super sweet and loving.”
WHAT TO DO
If your pet is lost, you can contact Hillsborough County Animal Services or search its online database of lost-and-found pets.
Another helpful resource that led to Ellie’s return is the Facebook page Lost and Found Pets of Hillsborough County.
The average cost to insert a tiny ID microchip under your pet’s skin is $45, but less expensive procedures can be found. For example, the Humane Society of Tampa Bay charges just $15 for microchipping at its clinic.
Contact Catherine Sinclair at csinclair@plantcityobserver.com.