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SAUNDRA AMRHEINThe white pit bullterrier named Blue may not make it after being repeatedly kicked and stomped on. An ex-roommate is charged with battery and cruelty to animals.
DADE CITY - There was something about that one blue eye that caught Sean Spaights.
He saw the 9-week-old white pit bullterrier puppy, its one brown eye, one blue eye, and something clicked.
"I had never seen anything like it," said Spaights, 20. "It kind of caught a soft spot in my heart with that blue eye. I thought, "This is a keeper."'
That was Friday when Spaights paid $150 for the puppy and named him Blue.
Three days later - a fresh bag of puppy food in the kitchen, a new red collar on the dog's neck and a few nights of snuggling - Spaights was leaning over the puppy's body, watching him die.
Moments before, Spaights had taken Blue for his daily walk. On the way back from Pete's Pantry at Lock and 15th Streets Monday evening, cutting through the Dade Oaks Housing Complex, he spotted Roger Smith.
According to Spaights and police reports, Smith, who formerly lived with Spaights, was angry and rearing for a fight. Spaights said he had asked him to leave several months ago for causing problems. Now Smith was tasting revenge, Spaights said.
Smith threw a quart-sized glass bottle at his back, said Spaights and a report with the Sheriff's Office. He threw another one but missed. Then he turned on Blue.
Smith, 21, a drifter around Dade City with a long arrest record on charges of battery, assault and marijuana possession, kicked the puppy more than a foot into the air. As soon as the dog landed, Smith was on him. He stomped on his head several times, then repeatedly kicked him in the ribs, the report said.
"It was too fast for my dog," Spaights said Tuesday. "He didn't have time to react."
After Smith walked away, Spaights scrambled to pick up Blue. He carried him in his arms back to his aunt's house, where he is living on Oakview Circle in Dade City.
That's where Dade City police Officer Lynn Tabb entered the picture. When he arrived, the dog was lying in the grass struggling to breathe. So officers picked up the puppy and carried him to the porch to give him some water. He wouldn't take any.
"He was in shock at the time," Tabb said. "This is the worst case (of animal abuse) I've seen in town."
Blue suffered broken ribs, a fractured skull, two ruptured ear drums and a collapsed lung, the sheriff's report said.
Police and sheriff's deputies went looking for Smith. Animal Control officers arrived to take the dog because Spaights, a fleet manager with Florida Youth Conservation Corps, said he can't afford the veterinary bills.
After law enforcement officials found Smith, he was charged with battery and cruelty to animals. He remained Tuesday in the Land O'Lakes jail in lieu of $5,500 bail.
Officials at Pasco County Animal Control are trying to keep Blue comfortable, said supervisor Lynne Deddo. She said he has been stabilized.
"We're going to see what happens day by day," she said. The options are adoption, transferring him to another humane agency or euthanasia if he can't recover.
Spaights said he's waiting for word on whether Blue pulls through. If he can afford the medical bills, he'll try to get him back. He doesn't care if another family adopts Blue. He just hopes he lives.
"I woke up this morning calling his name," Spaights said.
"I'm a little heartbroken without my puppy."