Samantha is one lucky dog.

You wouldn't know it, though, if you saw her Aug. 11. Someone had shot her in the face and left her to die inside a locked mobile home in Ellsworth, Wis.

But lucky for Samantha, police came knocking that day.

Bloody dog prints outside the home were a sure sign something was wrong. Doug Ducklow, an investigator for the Pierce County sheriff's office, had gone to the home to follow up on an unrelated case when he found the blood. Looking through a window, he couldn't believe what he saw: a skinny dog with part of its lower jaw hanging from its face.

"I knew right away that I had to do something to rescue that animal," Ducklow said. He got a warrant to enter the home and contacted Dr. Becky Behrendt


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at Pierce Veterinary Clinic in Ellsworth.

The frightened dog was taken to the clinic, and Ducklow anticipated the worst.

"I thought for sure that they'd have to euthanize the dog," he said. "But Becky looked at me and said, 'No, I think we can save her.' "

They did.

The next month, clinic staff performed multiple surgeries on Samantha at the clinic's expense and repaired as much of the damage as they could.

"One side of its lower jaw was pretty much gone, and the other side was broken," Behrendt said. "We fixed the side that was broken and kind of closed the side where the pieces were gone."

Dr. Heather Fairbairn, another veterinarian at the clinic, said the decision to save the dog was made because she demonstrated remarkable character.

"This dog had an extraordinary temperament given the situation," said Fairbairn, who added the dog showed no aggression. "All she wanted to do was lay her bloody face on someone's lap."

The day Samantha was found, Kim Tapager drove to the Pierce Veterinary Clinic to pick up a prescription for one of her two Great Danes. She had been thinking about adopting another one.

Clinic staff asked Tapager if she wanted to take the injured dog, which was sedated and unconscious. It wasn't a Great Dane, but it needed a home.

"I said, 'Well, you fix her up, and we'll take her,' " said Tapager, who lives in Ellsworth with her husband, Larry. "We planned on just fostering her, but we think she'll stay forever now."

Tapager, who calls Samantha "Sam" for short, said she gave the dog the name because "it sounded like a girly but tomboy-ish name."

"She's a tough girl," Tapager said.

Behrendt is happy where Samantha landed.

"She's a very good owner, so she'll take good care of her," Behrendt said of Tapager.

Tapager, who once worked in a veterinary clinic, has a hard time understanding why someone would do what they did to the dog, which is believed to be a 1 1/2-year-old German shepherd mix.

"They shoot her and leave her to suffer. ... I don't understand what's wrong with people," she said. "People who do that to animals — it's not far off from doing it to humans."

Staff at Pierce Veterinary Clinic determined Samantha, who came into the clinic without a name, had been shot within 24 hours of being found by Ducklow.

The sheriff's office later contacted Crystle Beckler, 24, and Kyle Hines, 23, who had been living at the mobile home. Beckler admitted she was the dog's owner, and she and Hines expressed surprise that something had happened to it, investigators said.

They said that when they left the dog in the home it was uninjured and had plenty of food and water. Although they had already vacated the home, Beckler told investigators there were plans for her or a relative to return for the dog, police reported.

Hines suggested to investigators that a neighbor could have shot Samantha. Both assured police they had nothing to do with injuring the dog, according to the report.

It was never verified that Beckler was the true owner because the dog had never been registered, Ducklow said.

A message left with Beckler was not returned Thursday, and Hines could not be reached for comment.

Police have not been able to determine who shot the dog, and no charges have been filed, said Ducklow, who called investigation into the shooting "stalled out."

"They're a defenseless animal," Ducklow said. "I'm extremely disappointed in how this all transpired."

Despite what has been done to her in the past, Samantha doesn't hold back in showing love to humans. She can be slow to warm up to some men, but once she does, she isn't afraid to give her unusual sideways kiss.

"She loves to sit on your lap and crawl on you," Tapager said. "It's amazing — you'd never know anybody did anything to her."

Because of nerve damage in her face caused by the gunshot, Samantha sticks her tongue out the side of her mouth when trying to lick something in front of her. Her tongue also tends to hang through her missing teeth and out the side of her face.

Samantha must be hand fed, and it's not clear if she will ever be able to eat on her own, said Tapager, but another possible surgery and some dental work should correct some of the problems.

The injury isn't enough to spare chew toys, though. Tapager said Samantha is a "toy freak."

The dog has gained several pounds since coming to her new home and looks much fuller than when she arrived. She spends her days playing with the dogs and cats of the Tapager home and going for walks in the countryside.

"She's a really happy dog," Tapager said. "She's wonderful, and we love having her."

Andy Rathbun can be reached at 651-228-2121.


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