Horrible shot took best friend away forever

To the Editor:

May God have mercy on your soul. On Thursday, March 15, you murdered my best friend. She was a great pet.

I was at work and got a random phone call from the animal control stating you shot and killed my dog. FYI, my dogs are always contained while my boyfriend and I are at work. Somehow our front door came open while we were both working.

There are some neighbor kids that love to come and visit us, and they never knock; they just open the door and come in. We believe that's how our dogs got out.

Zoey's a lab-retriever mix, and Zaya a purebred chocolate lab. You shot at them for chasing your free range chickens, not killing them, chasing them, a bird dog's natural instinct. This was the first and last time that will happen for Zoey.

Do you play fetch with your chickens, take them on walks, buy treats for them, snuggle with them, teach them tricks? Probably not, because they are fowl.

My Zoey was extremely afraid of guns. If you would have given her a warning shot, instead of just cold-heartedly killing her, she would have ran off like a bat out of hell.

You shot her off your porch. She never even had a chance. Once your horrible shot hit her, you realized it was fatal. As she was suffering, you walked over to her and shot her two more times.

Whether it be legal in the eyes of the law, it's morally wrong.

I have talked to a few of your neighbors. Your chickens are free range and are constantly wandering into their yards. I have swerved and used my brakes more than a few times to miss one of your prized chickens. Maybe I shouldn't have; my Zoey might still be here.

Are you from Montana? Folks from Montana know how to make a clean shot, if the time comes to kill an animal, and if we have to kill the animal we eat it.

Do you bury your chickens? Do you bury them by the river where they loved to swim, by all the other family pets that have passed over the years? Do you spend hours, days, weeks crying because one of your chickens has passed?

For all the people reading this, I hope you will get some insight from our tragedy. Please fire off a warning shot if you are going to shoot someone's pet. At least give them a chance.

All you had to do was take three steps off your porch, yell at them, throw a rock at them, something. What makes you decide you get to play God?

We will never be able to replace such a wonderful dog. I thank God you missed my chocolate lab. I thank God one of your stray bullets didn't go through someone's house in the neighborhood, killing an innocent human being. How would you feel then? Were you even considering putting someone else in danger?

You have no idea what pain you caused. Not only to my boyfriend and I, but our chocolate lab, our kitties, our families and our friends. She meant a lot to a lot of people.

I can only hope you have learned something from this, and you will have better judgment if someone else's dog wanders into your yard.

Jill Wood