Man Thinks He's Hallucinating When Eagle Snatches Small, White Dog Before His Eyes
Social media gets a lot of flack for being a compulsive time sink, a nigh-addictive way for people to while away their days. Sometimes, though, it can be a lifesaver — and I mean that literally, at least when it comes to the case of one fortunate pooch.
Weighing in at a mere eight pounds, tiny Zoey belongs to Monica Newhard of Lehigh River, Pennsylvania.
On Jan. 2, her brother, Felipe Rodriguez, watched the little bichon frisé quite literally vanish in front of him, snatched away by a hungry eagle.
The abduction happened so quickly that Rodriguez wasn’t sure he could believe what he was seeing.
“He’s thinking, ‘What beautiful wings,’ and then all [of a] sudden, he’s going, … ‘That’s Zoey!’” Newhard told WFMZ.
In fact, Rodriguez initially thought he must’ve been hallucinating as the big bird snatched the small, white dog before his eyes. “There was flapping of wings and then it was gone,” he explained to the Associated Press.
“I’m a city boy. This doesn’t happen in my world.”
Newhard was heartbroken at the loss of her bichon. She had known that there were birds near the area and believed that they sometimes preyed on local rabbits, but she had no idea they could attack Zoey or any of her other three dogs.
A quick search of the area turned up nothing but snow and ice.
The family soon concluded that Zoey must be gone and posted a picture of her on Facebook in the hope that someone might recover the dog’s body.
They got more than they hoped for. The next day, 51-year-old Christina Hartman — who lives a full four miles from the Newhards — called them with the news that Zoey was safe and sound.
Hartman had been driving when she spotted a white lump near the road.
Pulling over, she discovered that it was a small dog covered in ice with several puncture wounds on its neck.
“It could hardly move,” she said. After getting the animal home, warmed up, and fed, she told herself that “this dog belongs to a family, and I’m gonna find out who owns it.”
The search didn’t take long. The next morning, Hartman stumbled across Newhard’s Facebook post, and Zoey was soon reunited with her owner.
“There is good in this world,” Newhard said. “With everything going on in this world, you think, ‘No, there’s not,’ and there really is.”
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
