COWLITZ COUNTY, Wash. — A dog was found shot, muzzled and left for dead in Mount St. Helens by a lineman crew on Nov. 2.
Crew members said they were working 45 minutes away from the closest town and were descending the mountain when they noticed the dog lying on the side of the road.
"It was laying in this ditch," Dylan Shulda, a lineman said.
The linemen crew cut the duct tape muzzling the dog and drove him to the Cowlitz County Humane Society. X-rays showed a bullet went through the dog's skull, before lodging near his jaw.
At the humane society, they bathed the pup, cleaned and nursed him back to health. They named him Trooper, and one worker even fostered him for more than a week.
“They left him there to die," said Darren Ullmann, executive director of the Cowlitz County Humane Society.
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"We're just glad we can help in any way,” Kasey Williams, who fostered the dog, said. “He deserves it."
The dog may have been on the side of the road for three or four days, Ullmann said.
But on Sunday, Trooper returned to Mount St. Helens, played with toys and ran around the ditch where he was left for dead.
And one of the linemen who found Trooper has decided to adopt him.
"Our daughter moved away to college,” Shulda said. “So, we'd been kicking around the idea of adopting another dog."
The Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office is investigating who is responsible for shooting the dog. If you have any information, you’re urged to contact them.