DeKalb County authorities are investigating the bow-and-arrow shooting of a beloved family pet that has residents on edge in a Tucker neighborhood.
As Kirby Vanderyt said that as she and her family were getting ready for dinner late Saturday afternoon, she heard a blood-curdling howl from the yard.
It was Obsidian Rose, her black Labrador. The 2-year-old dog, who she calls Siddie, came running across the front yard of her home in the 2700 block of Thornbriar Road and stopped.
"I could see a piece of metal hanging from her," Vanderyt said. "I thought she had impaled herself."
Siddie was bleeding profusely and about to go into shock.
Vanderyt rushed the pet to an emergency clinic in DeKalb, where vets confirmed Siddie had been shot by an arrow. They told Vanderyt that Siddie's wounds were beyond their scope. The wounds had been made by a hunting arrow, the kind used to bring down a deer.
Vanderyt and her son then drove Siddie to the University of Georgia animal hospital. "That's when it got real scary," Vanderyt said.
Siddie, who had been shot with a triple-point arrow, went through four hours of surgery to remove the arrow and repair the damage.
"It's designed to go all the way through a deer," Vanderyt said. "When it enters, it's like three razor blades that open up and bore a huge hole into its target."
The arrow nicked Siddie's intestines and two of her arteries. Luckily, it did not strike any vital organs, and the pet's prognosis for recovery looks good, Vanderyt said.
But because the shooter has not been caught, Vanderyt and her neighbors in the community that sits between Tucker and Henderson high schools remain uneasy.
"A lot of people are concerned," Vanderyt said. "I don't feel comfortable letting my pets or my grandchildren outside, because we don't know what we're dealing with. That was a lethal weapon."
The DeKalb County Animal Services agency has opened an investigation into the incident, according to DeKalb police spokeswoman Mekka Parish. Anyone with information is asked to call 404-294-2645.
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