COLUMBUS, Ohio — Brutus the dog is home recovering, with a few added sutures and a few less teeth, after being shot in the face.
It happened Monday morning at his home on Butler Avenue. His owner, Heather Mitchell, says her son was home sick from school and heard the gunshots. One of those bullets went right through Brutus’ jaw.
Mitchell was at work when she heard the news.
“My heart dropped to my stomach, like I was floored,” she said. “I mean, we just, my house got broken into two weeks prior, and all I could think of was, is this person like coming back to break into our house again, like was it retaliative, is he dead, like I didn’t know anything at this point, so I just started crying, like immediately.”
But things only seemed to get worse from there. Mitchell says she and her partner started contacting vets to get Brutus treated. But, because they had limited funds to spend, she says they were repeatedly turned away from vet offices.
“We started thinking about just dropping him off at the humane society so that he could be seen, so that he could be treated, giving our dog away so that he could get the help that he needed,” she said.
Finally, roughly nine hours after Brutus was shot, Mitchell says the family found a vet willing to help. It was Dr. Tod Beckett and his team at VCA Sawmill Animal Hospital.
Brutus had surgery and had his lower jaw stitched up, meaning he now has to be on a diet of soft food for weeks to come. And there’s still a fear of infection.
Mitchell is grateful Brutus is alive but worries about paying his medical bills.
“I feel like this is the second blow in a month that we’ve had like back-to-back, with the holidays coming and everything, like, our dog’s alive, I mean, to say the least,” she said.
The family has set up a GoFundMe account.
Meanwhile, Columbus Humane is offering a $5,000 reward for information for the identification, arrest and conviction of those responsible. Anyone with information can call 614-777-7387 ext. 250.