Adopted dog victim of hit-and-run
Jeff Lowney pets his adopted dog, King, who was abandoned near the Hungry Horse Reservoir and since has suffered a broken hip from a hit and run. (JP Edge photo)
By CHRIS PETERSON
Hungry Horse News
Jeff Lowney just wanted to give a couple of the dogs that were abandoned up the Hungry Horse Reservoir a better life than they had before.
But it’s been a harrowing journey for one dog since, and it’s not over yet, after someone ran over one of the dogs while his wife walked them on a leash near the family home on West Reserve Drive in Kalispell.
Lowney adopted two of the husky mixes that were abandoned this fall near Doris Creek. All told, 18 dogs, all of them husky mixes, were left to fend for themselves. One was shot by a local woman who thought it was a wolf.
The remaining 17 ended up at the Flathead County Animal Shelter. When Lowney saw the dogs become available for adoption, he made an appointment and took two dogs — one a white 7-month-old female puppy named Nina.
The second, the father of the litter, a gray dog named King.
A few days after getting the dogs his wife was walking them near the family home on West Reserve on the sidewalk. Both dogs were on a leash.
A white pickup truck jumped the curb, slammed into King and nearly hit his wife and Nina.
King ended up 50 feet in the middle of the busy highway, gravely wounded and unconscious. The offending truck sped off.
Lowney was on his way home for lunch when he saw King and his wife and several other people gathered around in his lawn. They had moved the King off the street.
When King came to, the dog started lashing out and bit Lowney on both hands. He had to get stitches.
They got the dog calmed down, put him in a car and took him to a local animal hospital. X-rays showed King’s pelvis was shattered.
King was then transferred to Great Falls where his pelvis was rebuilt with screws. But three screws pulled out, so King had to go back to Great Falls.
Two more surgeries later the dog is now home and doing much better, Lowney said.
“Since I adopted this boy it’s been a rollercoaster,” nt to give him a better life than what he had.”
Nina, the pup, is growing gangbusters. She’s 3-4 inches taller and has gained 10 pounds.
As for the abandonment of the dogs in the first place and then the shooting of one of them, Lowney summed it up with a single sentence.
“A new low for humanity is what it is,” he said.
Lowney’s hands are on the mend, too, from the dog bites. He works as a mechanic, but can’t fix things until his hands get better, he said.
As of presstime, the person or persons who abandoned the dogs had not been found.