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Dog found in Knightstown woods, badly injured after being hit by car

KNIGHTSTOWN, Ind. (WISH) — A dog continues to recover after rescuers said she was found covered in blood and left for dead in the woods in Knightstown.

It happened two weeks ago near U.S. Route 40.

The dog is a Great Pyrenees named Heidi. She just turned 3 years old but has already been through so much.

An animal control officer, who was off duty, believes Heidi was hit by a car. They said they found her in the woods behind a grocery store waiting to die.

“We found her in the woods, and she was just laying there in shock, covered in blood, mud and just out of energy, panting,” said Heather Hamilton, who found the injured dog. “She was in really bad shape.”

Hamilton also works as an animal control officer for Greenfield. She said she was off duty when she saw a post on Facebook about an injured dog in Knightstown.

“Since I’m from here, I get a lot of calls of people knowing that I’ll help with animals, so I waited to see if anybody respond to it and nobody did. Then I asked that evening if the dog had any help yet,” she explained. “They said no, so I immediately dropped what I was doing and left and came over here to help her.”

Hamilton said the dog was just waiting to die.

“Most of the time, animals will find a hiding spot to go and die when they know they’re getting ready to,” she said. “I have no doubt she wouldn’t have made it had we not gotten to her when we did.”

Hamilton believes the dog was hit by a car somewhere on U.S. 40 and made her way over to the woods.

“I think she was probably hit by a car after hearing what the vet said. It was probably several days prior from when we found her that she was hit,” she said.

Hamilton thought the driver would stop, but instead that person kept going.

“Unfortunately, not everybody always stops, but as long as somebody helped her, and that’s what we wanted to do,” she said.

Hamilton shared pictures of Heidi with 24-Hour News 8. Some of the pictures showed her injuries bandaged up. The impact left her with a hole through her face and into her sinus cavity.

Her leg was sliced open where Hamilton said she could see the bone, muscle and maggots.

“I’ve been in animal welfare for about 10 years, so I have seen a lot. This is probably one of the worst cases I’ve seen,” she said.

But Heidi is now on the road to recovery. She was taken to Indy Great Pyrenees Rescue, a nonprofit group, then to Purdue Small Animal Hospital, where she had six surgeries.

“Right now she’s doing good; we just went to see her on Saturday, and she’s a big lovable sweetheart,” she said. “She was wonderful, came up and gave me a kiss. I think she’ll be all right.”

Indy Great Pyrenees Rescue created a GoFundMe page and raised more than $15,000 dollars in 15 days for Heidi.

“I’ve had people contact me out of the country wanting to know how to donate and all over the United States,” she said. “It’s hard to believe, but there are so many animal lovers out there everywhere that are always willing to help.”

Vets did find a microchip on Heidi, and it said she was from Greenville, Ohio.

The rescue group learned Heidi had been through three families, the most recent in Knightstown. 24-Hour News 8 learned the current owner surrendered the dog to the rescue group after the incident.

Heidi is still at the Purdue Small Animal Hospital where vets are still treating her for the open wound and for heartworm. They’re hoping she can go home sometime next week to a foster family.

Click here if you would like to help Heidi.

Click here to learn more about Indy Great Pyrenees Rescue.

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