DATE: Sunday, August 17, 1997               TAG: 9708170081

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Guy Friddell 

                                            LENGTH:   57 lines

INJURED PUP, RESCUED BY A KIND WOMAN, NEEDS A HOME

Driving to work one recent morning, Cynthia Perales had to shift from the left to the right lane and, moving around a police patrol car, she caught a glimpse of a young dog lying, bloodied, on the street.

``When I drove by the dog,'' she recalled Saturday, ``her eyes looked up at me and they just kind of said, `Please help me.'

``So then I started crying and praying, trying to decide whether to go on to work or go back. All I could think about were those eyes. So I had to turn around.''

A sheriff's deputy had parked his car to reroute traffic around the dog on Tidewater Drive, and a woman had rushed over from a nearby grocery store, both waiting for an aide from the Animal Control Bureau.

``And the dog was lying there suffering and might die without some immediate care, and I said if somebody would put her in my car, I'd take her to my vet.''

Cynthia phoned the West Animal Clinic and agreed to pay for the dog's care beyond a clinic discount. She returned to the neighborhood and jogged up and down streets for an hour seeking the owner. Then left a note with her phone number at the grocery store.

In Chesapeake, the Animal Assistance League cares for dogs until they're adopted, but it was filled.

The Norfolk SPCA can't accept strays, but, said Cynthia, the dog needed a place a stay for a spell. ``I'd spent what was necessary to put her back together, and I felt she didn't have anybody except me. So I signed papers for her ownership with assurance I would fund her stay with the SPCA.''

Cynthia owns two cats and a Lab-German shepherd, 12, whom she rescued as a pup after children had flung him off the Colley Avenue viaduct. Her work, plus evening college courses, prevent her taking the new dog into her home.

Having rescued the dog, she was reluctant to carry her to the SPCA. ``To have to leave her would be heart-wrenching,'' she said.

So I picked up and delivered the dog, which the clinic staff had dubbed ``Sweetie'' for her affectionate, frolicsome disposition.

What impresses me about dogs is their resiliency, bouncing back from an injury as if it had never occurred. And gleeful Sweetie was flying around my station wagon as if she were a tail-less kite.

To see her is to laugh and reach for her and be met with a kiss. A visit Saturday to the SPCA at 916 Ballentine Blvd. found her playing in the exercise yard with three teen volunteers: Robert McIntyre, Stephen Graves and Brian Howell.

Her glossy black coat is marked neck to chest in scarf-like white. Sweetie would, Cynthia noted, make a lovable companion for someone who likes to walk and run, or for a family with older children. She's had the best of care of late. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

TING-LI WANG/The Virginian-Pilot

Cynthia Perales rescued Sweetie after a hit-and-run accident. The

dog is staying at the Norfolk SPCA.

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