Sir: An older lady neighbour down the street who has been grieving over the loss of her husband in the last month has a wonderful little dog named Rusty. The dog who is 12, is the same age as his master in dog years and is very supportive and friendly.
Recently, our widow neighbour was taking little Rusty, all 20 pounds of him, for a walk along Mud Creek in the park at Queen Street and Indian Creek Road. In my neighbour’s words, “There was a man walking two boxer-type dogs and while texting was holding his dog’s leash with his foot.” His dogs got loose and charged the woman, knocking her down and then one of the dogs grabbed little Rusty by the neck and head.
Naturally, Rusty was screaming in pain.
The owner of the other dogs did nothing to help while the woman was still on the ground. Eventually, Rusty escaped and the “texting” individual walked away as if nothing had happened.
A gentleman who witnessed the incident helped the woman and Rusty to her car and offered help. She was just happy for his help and to get home. She was too traumatized to ask his name and thank him.
Rusty recovered from his wounds in three or four days, however, the widow went to emergency because of pain to discover she has a fractured pelvis and has been confined to bed rest while the crack heals.
My wife and myself have embraced the opportunity to take Rusty on his daily walks but there are a lot of unanswered questions. We hear about such callousness in large urban areas where one life is meaningless, but here in Chatham it is surprising.
We thank the stranger who offered help, because if he hadn’t witnessed the event, we don’t know what might have happened.
David Rourke
Chatham
