Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 7, 1991 TAG: 9103080043
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Lucy's chances of survival after being hit by a car were next to nothing. Her chances at the Roanoke Valley SPCA were even smaller because she was injured and pregnant. But Lucy won the hearts of everyone who saw her.
It all began when Gail Bowyer, a Roanoke County Schools bus driver, was on her way to work one January morning.
It was close to 7 a.m., and the sun hadn't quite risen. Driving along Shadwell Drive near Waterfall Lake, Bowyer saw cars ahead of her trying to avoid something in the middle of the road. As she approached, she saw it was a small dog hunched over the yellow line.
Bowyer stopped immediately and took the dog to the roadside. "I just hate to think of kids finding their pets in a million pieces," she said.
She was running late for work, so she left the dog and came back when she had finished her bus route. The beagle was still there. Bowyer spent an hour knocking on doors to find its owner, but with no luck.
She took the dog to the vet to find it had two broken shoulders, which would cost about $600 to $1,000 to fix. The vet suggested putting the dog to death, but she was healing fairly well on her own.
In the meantime, Bowyer placed a lost-and-found ad in the newspaper. She called the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Animal Control Bureau to locate an owner, but had no luck.
Bowyer got the dog back from the veterinary clinic and decided to keep her until an owner was found. She cut a leather belt to make a collar for the little dog and made space for her in the laundry room.
Toward the end of January, Lucy took a turn for the worse. She came down with pneumonia and was taken back to the vet. It wasn't until then Lucy was found to be pregnant. But again, she recovered from the pneumonia quickly.
During the warm weather, Bowyer let Lucy into the yard. When Bowyer's back was turned, Lucy wandered away and was picked up by the Animal Control Bureau, which turned her over to the SPCA.
The SPCA's policy on pregnant or injured dogs is to keep them a week and then have them put down, because they rarely survive in the shelter, said SPCA administrator Tammy Javier. But no one at the shelter could bear to kill Lucy. "We all fell in love with the dog, 'cause she grins at you," Javier said.
Bowyer nicknamed the dog Lucy because of her movie-star smile. The dog bares her teeth as if to imitate a smile. It's that smile that saved her, Bowyer said.
The SPCA struck a deal with Bowyer that if she kept Lucy until she had her puppies, the shelter would put the puppies up for adoption. They are due later this month.
However, Lucy is still without a home, Bowyer said. "After the pain of the broken shoulders and pneumonia, and being pregnant to boot, she deserves a break."
Bowyer would love to keep Lucy, but with three children, two cats and two horses, "I've got all I can handle," she said. "I can't believe no one in the valley would want her after all she's been through."
If no one claims Lucy, Bowyer has no idea what will happen to the smiling beagle. "I'm just playing it by ear."
by CNB