Last week, after something made off with her 10-pound Shih Tzu named Tonka, Jan Randall was in despair.
She papered the Alpharetta neighborhood with fliers and put ads on Craigslist.org seeking a one-eyed Shih Tzu with a close-cropped white coat. Then came a miracle: A one-eyed Shih Tzu showed up in Miranda Robinson's back yard in Cumming. "They contacted me and said, 'I think we have your dog,'" said Randall.
One problem: Robinson’s dog was missing its left eye. Randall’s dog was missing its right eye.
“I was so disappointed it wasn’t hers,” said Robinson, who is still looking for a home for her buccaneer Shih Tzu.
“It was just weird,” said Randall.
While Randall’s two others dogs, Sampson and Makena, have been mourning the loss of Tonka (“They just sit by the tree and wait”) Randall is worried about the reason for Tonka’s disappearance.
When she began canvassing the area, neighbors told her of a red-tailed hawk that has dive-bombed construction workers and tried to snatch a neighbor’s dachshund.
Did this hawk grab Tonka? Jim Ozier, wildlife biologist with the state Department of Natural Resources, said a red-tailed hawk’s usual prey is much smaller: they go after squirrels, snakes, rabbits, rats and mice. A big female can have a 54-inch wingspan and weigh 3.5 pounds. But most hawks can only carry about one-third to one-half of their own weight.
“I just think it’s impossible for one to move a 10-pound dog,” said Ozier.
Nonetheless, Randall is nervous about the future. “I’m considering moving back to the beach now, because seagulls don’t eat dogs.”
She would still like to find Tonka’s remains, or even his collar, to give him a decent burial. “If there’s a heaven,” she said, “he’s licking all the angel’s faces.”
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