NATCHEZ — A number of travelers on US 61 north of town near Atkins Lumber witnessed a chilling sight Saturday.
They saw a black Labrador-like dog crossing the highway with a bucket on its head. Several residents stopped to try to help the dog who ran away with each attempt to catch up with her.
Adams County Sheriff’s Deputy Karren Holland Ewing was contacted about the dog. Some who tried to catch the dog reported that it looked like she had puppies somewhere.
Around 5 p.m. Sunday, Ewing was driving through an area of Red Loop Road and approached a group of people standing and talking in a trailer park next to that road. She stopped to talk to the group, asking them if they had seen the dog.
“’Yes, she’s right there. It’s my father’s dog,” one of them told me. She was right under the trailer with the bucket still on her head,” Ewing said.
They told Ewing the dog had the bucket stuck on his head for about a week.
Catching the dog was no easy task. Natchez dog lovers Jessi Knight Credle and her husband, Benjie Credle, along with Linda Kennon and Johnny Kennon, joined Ewing, as did several deputies from the Adams County Sheriff’s Office.
The Credles, Kennons and Ewing are passionate about saving the lives of animals in need when possible.
When she was finally caught, Ewing said she was traumatized and “vicious.”
“We heard the dog howl and knew they had caught her. They took her to a field on the capture pole,” she said. But it’s as close as anyone could get.
The deputies who grabbed her managed to remove the clear plastic bucket, which had once held Cheetos, from her head.
When the owner came to try to put a collar on her and tie her up, she almost bit him, Ewing said. They discussed putting the dog down on the spot, but before that happened, the dog slipped out of the loop around its neck at the end of the catch pole and took off. He has not been seen since, she said.
The dog’s owner showed the escaped dog’s puppies to the group and said he didn’t want them and on Monday afternoon signed a form to release the puppies.
Ewing and his team met on Monday and rounded up 11 puppies, which the Natchez-Adams Humane Society has agreed to take in and put up for adoption when the time comes.
Ewing felt the dog would come back to her puppies, but when they came to pick them up on Monday afternoon, she wasn’t there and no one had seen her.
“At least that bucket is no longer on his head. And there are many houses in this neighborhood. She is likely to find a place where she can get food and water. We will continue to look for her and try to catch her. Hopefully she won’t be so scared and we can catch her and spay her so she doesn’t have any more puppies,” Ewing said.
She thanked Adams County Sheriff’s Deputies who showed up and assisted in the search and capture of the dog. They included: Deputy Aaron Wesley, Deputy Dizell Davis and Deputy Christopher Shropshire.
“We are so lucky to have the MPs we have. They are professionals and animal lovers. They volunteer their time and are always there when I need help. This community is so lucky to have Sheriff Travis Patten and deputies working in the Adams County Sheriff’s Office,” she said.