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EDITOR'S DESK

‘Tails’ of a triple tragedy pooch

by Judi McLeod

May 12, 2003

CanadaFreePress.com restaurant review columnist and research analyst Pamela Bloom doesn’t miss a trick when it comes to the fascinating world of canines. The owner of the irrepressible and adventurous Bijou, who looks like a teddybear but has the tenacity of a tiger, and the one-eyed Scout, who keeps he eye on her mistress at all times, Pam knows the idiosyncrasies of each and every dog who gambols in nearby College Park. A dog groomer, Pam counts many of the tailwaggers of the park as clients.

It was from Pam that I first heard the remarkable story of Dosha, the Wonder Dog of California.

Dosha, Pam informed me, was written-up in the May issue of People Magazine. Upon leaving the office, I picked up a copy at the corner store.

The fact that felines, not dogs, are supposed to be blessed with nine lives was somehow lost on Dosha.

The pit bull mix, with the perky, sometimes stand-up ears, is, among other things; one of California’s a most notorious fence jumper. It could be said that the sometimes-feckless Dosha is something like Pam’s Bijou--into everything.

It must have been a terrible scenario for Dosha’s owner when her 10-month-old pooch was first hit by a pickup truck, and then shot by a police officer, who only wanted to put the poor animal "out of her misery". As things turned out, the officer set the wheels in motion to put Dosha at the centre of a true-life mystery.

How else to explain Dosha’s tail wagging survival after two long hours in a local animal-control center’s deep freezer?

Wounded, and waiting most patiently, a worker opened the freezer door by chance to find "Dosha sitting up."

April 15 was to dawn a day like no other for the adventurous pooch. It began in the morning when her owner Louetta Mallard let her out in the front yard. Frisky to greet the day, Dosha soon jumped a 4-ft. cyclone fence only to be hit by a pickup truck.

A pickup truck is usually curtains for a run-over pooch. Indeed, an eyewitness on the scene, neighbour Rolf Biegiela said the lifeless dog was not moving and was even "glassy-eyed." "I said to myself, that’s a dead dog."

A police officer that arrived on the scene shot Dosha in the head for good measure.

In the next rolling urban scene, we see a public works employee transporting the dead dog to a nearby animal-control centre.

After all that already happened to her, two hours in a frigid freezer was no picnic for Dosha, fur coat notwithstanding.

"It’s amazing what things animals can stand," said veterinarian Debra Sally, who treated Dosha after she was set free from her cold morgue.

The tail-wagging Dosha was treated for hypothermia and had a bullet removed. The bullet had travelled along her skull, narrowly missing her brain, before settling in the skin under her jaw.

If there was no warmth in the freezer, there’s plenty of it in the recovery Dosha is making at the Clearlake Veterinary Clinic. Dosha is returning it in kind–lavishly, by wholeheartedly licking visitors’ hands. All she has to show for her harrowing day is some hearing loss in her right ear.

What about the reunion with her owner?

A reunion is scheduled as soon as her owner can erect a taller fence and buy a harness that will stop Dosha from jumping.

"That dog had everything go wrong, but someone was looking out for her," says Lake County Animal-Control Centre Director Denise Johnson. "This was her lucky day."

In faraway California, they’re calling out to Dosha. Meanwhile Pam and me will always remember the triple tragedy pooch as Rasputin.


Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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