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With love and lots of food, Susie thrives

A puppy that was almost beaten to death last year has a new name and doting owners in St. Pete Beach.

By STEVE THOMPSON
Published December 30, 2005

A year after one of Pasco County's more notorious animal abuse cases, the 5-pound puppy that endured it has settled into health and happiness - complete with free run of a home in St. Pete Beach and a doggie door leading out toward a white picket fence.

"Oh, what a lot of love and attention . . . and lots and lots of food . . . will do!" Donna Hamilton wrote the Pasco Times this week. "When we brought her home, we couldn't fill her up! She gained three pounds in the first week! We would sneak her into Publix every week to weigh her on their scale, and we kept a record of her progress. She now tips the scales at just under 50 pounds."

Hamilton adopted the puppy last year after hearing news of its savage beating during a New Port Richey domestic dispute. The dog was 7 weeks old then. Her name was Roxy.

On Nov. 20, 2004, authorities said, Curtis Charles Guy got into an argument with his girlfriend. Guy, then 24, grabbed his 18-year-old girlfriend by the throat, a sheriff's report said, and pushed her to the ground.

Then he picked up Roxy and slammed her to the floor of his mobile home. The girlfriend told a deputy that as she and Guy's mother begged him to stop, Guy took the puppy outside and slammed it twice more into the driveway, telling them to watch while he killed it.

A deputy found the pit bullterrier mix on the driveway, quivering and trying to hold her head up, her eyes closed.

Roxy recovered from a concussion, a broken jaw and two skull fractures at Little Animal Hospital in New Port Richey. She so charmed the clinic's technicians that they made special trips in the middle of the night to check on her.

The puppy soon was adopted by Hamilton and her husband, who live in St. Pete Beach. They renamed her Susie.

"If there was a smarter or sharper dog, I would never know one," Nelson Hamilton said Thursday. "She's full of life."

In September, Guy pleaded guilty to animal cruelty.

He is serving a two-year prison sentence, to be followed by two years of probation.

"That's good for him," Nelson Hamilton said. "That might straighten him out."

[Last modified December 30, 2005, 00:57:15]