Shot Terrebonne dog has surgery, loses eye

A Terrebonne dog was in good condition Friday night after surgery to remove his eye following gunshot wounds.

“Ducky,” formally named Jethro, was shot in the face Thursday morning on or near his owner’s property north of Terrebonne.

His owner, Torrey Brittain, told NewsChannel 21 on Friday she is angry and looking for answers.

“He’s got blood all over him, drool just hanging off of him — he wouldn’t move, he was cold,” she said, telling how she found Ducky huddled up under her horse trailer around 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

“I reacted the same way I would react if my daughter had walked up with shotguns being shot. My dogs are my family, they are my children,” Brittain said.

Doctors at Cinder Rock Veterinary Clinic in Redmond say Ducky will be fine, but they had to remove a badly damaged eye and replace it with a prosthetic, also closing up other wounds from shotgun BBs.

Ducky’s X-rays show dozens of fragmented bullets that he’ll carry throughout his body for the rest of his life.

Brittian said she can’t understand why someone would try to kill what she describes as a sweet and loving puppy.

“There’s some twisted individuals in this world,” she said. “It makes me sick that someone would do that just because.”

Ducky’s not just her dog, but also her 9-year-old daughter’s.

“She’s going to be haunted for the rest of her life, that’s for sure,” Brittain said of her daughter.

And Brittain also has a message for the person who shot Ducky: “I will be pressing charges to the fullest extent of the law. What you did is not right.”

A patrol deputy responded around 10 a.m. to the Redmond vet clinic after learning a dog was being treated for a possible shotgun wound, said Deschutes County sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Eggert.

The sergeant said Brittain last saw the dog around 9 p.m. Wednesday, then went outside around 8:30 a.m. to get him and found the dog was lying down and bleeding.

Eggert said it’s not known if the dog was shot while on Brittain’s property or if it occurred elsewhere. But he said neighbors reported hearing a single gunshot between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Thursday.

Brittain said her dogs do wander at times but are “not aggressive.”

Anyone with information about the incident was asked to call county dispatchers at (541) 693-6911.

Brittain said Ducky’s medical expenses could cost the family up to $6,000. If you would like to donate money toward his veterinary bills, you can call the Cinder Rock Veterinary Clinic at 541-923-1638.