Snatched by a hungry eagle, a little dog lives to bark the tale
Felipe Rodriguez says he thought he was hallucinating when an eagle snatched his sister’s little white dog from her yard, flapped its massive wings and disappeared over the trees.
Zoey, an 8-pound bichon frise, was gone, taken by a hungry raptor Tuesday afternoon not 50 feet from the home of his sister, Monica Newhard, on the banks of the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania.
“It seemed like something from the ‘Wizard of Oz,’” he said. “I’m a city boy. This doesn’t happen in my world.”
With food scarce and waterways freezing up, raptors are “looking a little more widely and taking advantage of whatever might be out there,” said Laurie Goodrich, a biologist at nearby Hawk Mountain Sanctuary.
Rodriguez said he was by himself at his sister’s home in Bowmanstown, and Zoey was playing in the fenced yard when he heard a loud screech.
“The bird was holding onto the dog. There was flapping of wings and then it was gone,” said Rodriguez.
He drove around the neighborhood looking for the 7-year-old bichon, to no avail. Rodriguez assumed Zoey was gone for good.
Zoey’s rescuer was Christina Hartman, 51, who said she was driving on a snow-covered back road when she spotted a furry white lump ahead.
“I notice this little frozen dog, icicles hanging from all over. It could hardly move,” Hartman said.
She scooped up the whimpering pooch, wrapped her in a blanket and took her home, feeding the dog two bowls of chicken-and-rice soup.
On Wednesday, Hartman spotted Newhard’s public Facebook post — Newhard had uploaded a photo of Zoey — and made an excited call.
Zoey had bruises and a few missing patches of fur.
“She is not really herself, but she is getting lots of love,” Newhard, texted the AP late Wednesday. “She doesn’t want to go out. … I really can’t blame her.”