Photo by: Melissa Steele A scab on her side is all that remains of a gunshot wound to Princess's abdomen. She was shot five times and found in a ditch near Harbeson.
They call her Princess, and she's lucky to be alive.
Left in a ditch near Harbeson with five bullet wounds in her body, Princess was discovered by George Coverdale and Tommie Atkins, who found her dehydrated and starving on Jan. 24.
"George called me and said there's a dog in the ditch, and I don't know what to do," Atkins said.
At first, Atkins said she thought the young, brindle-colored female pit bull had been hit by a car. When she got closer, she saw bullet wounds in the dog's blood-soaked coat.
Several shots spotted her abdomen, and the bone in her leg was exposed where a bullet had hit. A chain collar was tied tight around her neck.
"It looked like someone possibly used her for target practice," Coverdale said.
Atkins, a trained emergency medical technician, used her experience to assess the dog's wounds. She moved her onto a blanket and then into the car.
"I knew she was hurting when I tried to move her, but she's so sweet, she never tried to bite me or nothing," Atkins said.
The couple took the dog to a veterinarian for treatment, and almost $600 later, she's on her way to recovery.
Coverdale said the dog they dubbed Princess is housebroken and good around other dogs and children. He's not sure about cats, though.
"When she's here all she does is sleep," he said.
Lying at Coverdale's feet, Princess looks perfectly content, although both Coverdale and Atkins know they can't keep her.
They already have two dogs, and with their fixed income, the vet bills are too much for them to handle.
Atkins and Coverdale are now hoping to find Princess a nice home.
If they can't find one soon, they said they'll have to take her to the Georgetown SPCA and put her up for adoption.
"We'd love to keep her, but we just can't," Atkins said. "She's a very sweet girl."
Atkins said she understands why someone might be hesitant to adopt a pit bull because of all the negative stories about the breed. Princess is an exception, she said.
"Her worst enemy is her breed," Atkins said. See Cape Gazette article for adoption and donation info
http://capegazette.villagesoup.com/n...n-ditch/203884