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The puppy's eyes are eye-catching, for one is blue and one is green. The next thing you notice about it is the goose egg-size lump on its head. That lump, and other injuries, occurred when someone beat it with a baseball bat and threw it against the side of a mobile home.
The 4-month-old chocolate brown puppy was shown on television news reports and in newspapers over the holidays because the shelter that rescued it was looking for the person who hurt it.
I've received a number of phone calls and e-mails from people asking about the puppy. So here's the update, and the news is all good.
Someone in Bentleyville reported that the puppy was being abused. Marcia Rothaar, a humane agent at the Washington Area Humane Society, found it in a pile of debris outside a mobile home.
The puppy was taken to VCA Castle Shannon Animal Hospital. Sean and Kathy Taylor, of Bethel Park, paid its $450 veterinary bill, which was a reduction from the clinic's usual rates.
"We saw him on television and it just tore us up," Mr. Taylor said.
The puppy spent a very merry Christmas in a foster home.
Tips and good investigative work by the Washington Area Humane Society and state police from the Washington, Pa., barracks led to an arrest.
Franklin Sebetich Jr., 29, of Bentleyville, has been charged with one count of cruelty to animals. No date has been set for his hearing before District Judge Curtis L. Thompson, of Ellsworth.
Kristien Marra and her husband, Gordon Otten, of Peters, saw the puppy on television Dec. 23 and said it broke their hearts.
"We wondered who could beat a puppy with a bat. This really affected me. I had to do something," she said.
The couple called the shelter to offer it a temporary home and, Dec. 24, they picked it up.
"He's doing well," Ms. Marra said. "He was on pain meds when we got him, because his little head was still sore. He still had that big goose egg and all of his front teeth had been knocked out. Those were apparently puppy teeth and his permanent teeth are coming in. He was 15 pounds when we got him and now he weighs 25 pounds."
They call him Colby.
"He is wonderful. He is sweet," she said. "He gets along with neighbors and with their dogs. He gets along well with our cats."
The reports that I saw identified the puppy as a Labrador retriever mix, and he does appear to have some of the traits of that breed.
The shelter Web site says he's a Lab-husky mix. That's possible, though the only husky trait I see is that one blue eye.
Guessing the breeds that make up a mixed breed dog involves a little bit of science and a lot of guesswork. It doesn't really matter much, except that different breeds have different needs and personality traits.
I think Colby might have some pit bull in his bloodlines. He has pit bull ears. His tail is long and skinny, not thick like a Lab's and not plumed like a husky's. Pit bulls often have blue eyes.
Most importantly, Colby has the personality of a pit bull, and that's a good thing.
Though he has been abused, he is neither fearful nor aggressive toward people or animals. Pit bulls are famously loyal and loving toward anyone who shows them even the smallest smidgen of kindness.
Ms. Marra says she didn't care what he is, she and her husband love him and want to make their home his permanent home. Shelter officials say that's fine with them.
If you like what the Washington Area Humane Society has done for Colby and for so many dogs and cats, help them out, if you can. They take in about 4,000 animals per year and the shelter, located in North Strabane, struggles mightily to stay afloat financially. A crew of hard-working volunteers does as much as they can, but money is always needed, including money for the very modest salaries of two humane agents who investigate about 800 abuse cases per year.
And, like all shelters and rescue groups, they always need foster homes.
For more information go to www.washingtonpashelter.org cq or call 724-222-PETS. The mailing address is PO Box 66, Eighty Four, PA, 15330.
