A suburban woman says that it is a miracle that her 8-year-old dog is alive after he was shot earlier this month while on a walk.
According to Aurora resident Megan Peterman, the dog, a shepherd-hound mix named Jamo, was on a walk with his owners on the night of March 10 when he slipped out of his collar and began to run.
Jamo then came near another dog who was off-leash, according to his owners, and that’s when Zach Zeciroski saw a muzzle flash.
“I still hear the gun shots,” he said. “I still hear the terrible sound of Jamo wailing in pain. I could see the blood. I could see my daughter. I could see her shaking.”
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The bullet entered under the dog’s right eye, nicked his jawbone and exited under his left ear, according to the family.
Miraculously, Jamo survived the gunshot, and is slowly recovering.
“He’s not quite Jamo yet, but he’s still alive,” Peterman said. “He’s still getting back, and his personality comes back a little bit more every day.”
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Peterman says that vets told her that the dog was extremely lucky to be alive.
“An inch one way or the other, yeah, he wouldn’t be here,” she said.
The family says they are confused why the other owner would have opened fire, considering that there was distance between the two dogs on the night the shooting occurred.
“We were a good 12 feet across,” Zeciroski said. “We were on opposite sides of the street, and I even stopped to let him get further on down the street. This is a very friendly dog neighborhood.”
Now, friends and neighbors are pitching in for a fundraiser to help pay for the dog’s care.
“There’s gonna be follow-up care needed,” Peterman said. “He still needs CT scans to make sure that the bone fragments that are at the base of his skull aren’t going to cause any problems now that the swelling’s down.”
Aurora police say they are continuing to investigate the shooting, and while no arrests have been made, Jamo’s owners say that they are hopeful that justice will be done, and that their dog posed no threat to anyone else.
“We just ask that justice takes its course, and he (the other dog’s owner) gets what’s coming to him,” Zach said.
