Mistake causes dog's death

The driver of a Ford truck did not know that her mother had tied a pet to its hitch.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO, Times Staff Writer
Published October 9, 2007

RIVERVIEW - Blacky was a fine dog.

The Alvizo family inherited the black mixed-breed pooch from a friend who stayed a short while with them on rural Edgeknoll Drive.

The family didn't mind when their friend left Blacky behind six months ago. He was good protection for their large plot of land. He barked at strangers at night. He ate leftovers and stayed outside.

When Maria Veronica Alvizo's grandson started kindergarten a few weeks ago, Blacky made it his business to trot down to the bus stop alongside them.

But some people complained that Blacky was too rough. He jumped and had long nails. One woman said he bit.

So, last week, Maria Veronica Alvizo, 49, began tying up Blacky before walking to the bus stop. She bought a rope made for dogs, but Blacky bit through it. She bought a chain, and that seemed to work. She tied him to the trampoline. She tied him near the house.

On Monday, when she woke at 5:30 a.m., she called Blacky and fed him leftover tacos. She chained him behind the maroon 1991 Ford F-150 with the broken gas gauge and the malfunctioning wipers - the one no one ever uses.

Her daughter's boyfriend left for work. His van was broken down, so he took Maria's daughter's car. Then the daughter, Maria E. Alvizo, 28, headed out for work.

It was still dark at 6:30 a.m. when the two women wiped off the truck's wet windshield, knowing about the broken wipers.Maria Veronica Alvizo saw Blacky under the truck but didn't give it much thought.

She went inside. Her daughter left.

At 7:15 a.m., Maria Veronica Alvizo was halfway to the bus stop with her grandson when she stopped walking. She felt her blood sugar spike. Her arms started shaking.

"Oh, my God," she said out loud.

"Abuela," the boy said, addressing his grandma in Spanish, "why are you mad?"

"I'm mad at me, honey," she remembers saying. "Mad at myself."

The boy missed his bus.

They turned around and rushed back home. Perspiration dotted Maria Veronica's forehead. She raced for her son's cell phone to call her daughter, but the phone didn't work.

She tried to calm herself before driving her grandson to school in the family's last working vehicle. But all Maria Veronica could think about was her daughter's horror.

A deputy stopped Maria E. Alvizo about 5 miles from home at Highway 301 and Big Bend Road shortly after 7 a.m.

People had been yelling at her since she left the house, but she didn't know why. She didn't think the obscenities were aimed at her because nothing seemed to be wrong, she told her mother later.

"Do you know you have a dog tied to your truck?" the deputy asked Alvizo, according to her mother.

The daughter started to cry.

The deputy walked her around to the back of the truck.

"Dog killer!" a passerby yelled.

Maria Veronica Alvizo had no questions when her daughter drove through the gate accompanied by sheriff's cruisers. "I don't know what's the matter with me," she said a few hours later as she walked around the truck and put her hand on the hitch where she'd tied Blacky.

Maybe it was her diabetes, she said. It makes her forgetful.

Her daughter took the day off from her job at an assisted living facility. Deputies said there would be no charges.

Maria Veronica Alvizo said it will be quiet outside now.

"I just can't stop thinking about that poor dog," she said.

[Last modified October 8, 2007, 22:51:08]