kit-kit
05-11-2010, 12:09 PM
Dog recovering after being hit by suspected DUI driver
By JEREMY HAY ([email protected]) THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: May 10, 2010 at 5:03 p.m. Last Modified: Mon. May 10, 2010 at 5:03 p.m. A dog that was run down by an allegedly drunk Sebastopol couple is making a steady recovery, his owner said Monday.
Related lnks:Sebastopol couple face charges after hitting dog with car (https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100510/NEWS/100519989)
Dog run over; couple arrested for DUI, hit and run (https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100509/ARTICLES/100509486) https://www.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=SR&Date=20100510&Category=ARTICLES&ArtNo=100519961&Ref=V1&MaxW=250&border=0 (https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100510/ARTICLES/100519961?p=all&tc=pgall#)A Sebastopol couple suspected of hitting this dog, named Thor, with their car remained in jail Monday charged with drunken driving.
Thor, a Siberian Husky, suffered numerous cuts and “is dazed,” but is on the mend and under observation at an animal clinic, said Eric W Kritz of Graton.
“I was told he was hit and the truck ran over him but not with the wheels,” Kritz said. “If the wheels had gone over him he would have been dead, so he was lucky.”
Michael Craig, 36 and Shoshana Maier, 24, suspected of running Thor over with a 1993 GMC Yukon on Sunday and then leaving the scene, were both due in court Tuesday to be formally charged.
Maier faces more charges than Craig, including that she was driving when the dog was hit on Lone Pine Road in Sebastopol and didn't stop.
She was believed to be driving with a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit, the CHP said. Both she and Craig have licenses that are suspended for prior DUIs, CHP Officer Jon Sloat said Monday.
Soon after the 6 p.m. incident, Lone Pine Road resident Kristina Derkos happened on the scene. Thor was in the middle of the road, she said, blood running from his mouth and staining his white coat.
A couple was kneeling by the dog trying to help, but things looked grim, Derkos said.
“I've been around animals all my life, and sick and injured animals, and I thought he was a goner,” she said.
Derkos raced home to get her husband and 12-year-old son — who thought to bring a blanket to help lift Thor — and returned to find more neighbors trying to help. Together they lifted the dog, which was “screaming in pain,” into her car.
Events were scrambled further when the Yukon came barreling back through the scene, Derkos said: “People started screaming ‘Stop and slow down, you're going to hit someone,' they said, ‘that's the guy that hit him, that's the car that him him,'” she said.
The Yukon had returned, with the drivers now apparently having switched places. But the car sped off without stopping. Another couple hopped in a car to give chase, she said, an account the CHP confirmed.
The couple, whose names were not available Monday, followed the Yukon for close to an hour, until it pulled into a driveway on Bloomfield Road.
CHP officers found Craig and Maier there and arrested them after questioning. Craig was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor drunken driving. His bail Monday was $20,000.
Maier was arrested on suspicion of hit and run, drunken driving and driving with a suspended license. Her bail was $35,000.
Kritz said he'd been at a Mother's Day party at his girfriend's Lone Pine Road home and that Thor had “been prancing about in the yard,” which is fully fenced. Thor escaped when the couple went off for a few hours to see “Iron Man 2.”
“Did he dig out or jump out, we don't know,” Kritz said. “But when we came back the neighbors came over and asked whether we owned a white dog.”
Derko said it's the best parts of what could have been a traumatizing event that have stayed with her most.
“The compassion that I witnessed was pretty amazing,” she said.
this was in print edition Chris Smith column: "...Despite the danger that the frightened animal might bite, Kristina said her 12-year-old son, Dylan, insisted on riding back there with him. He held the dog's head and assured him he'd be OK. ... Not long after, word spread among Thor's rescuers that the great, blue-eyed dog would be all right."
Staff Writer Randi Rossmann contributed to this report.
By JEREMY HAY ([email protected]) THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: May 10, 2010 at 5:03 p.m. Last Modified: Mon. May 10, 2010 at 5:03 p.m. A dog that was run down by an allegedly drunk Sebastopol couple is making a steady recovery, his owner said Monday.
Related lnks:Sebastopol couple face charges after hitting dog with car (https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100510/NEWS/100519989)
Dog run over; couple arrested for DUI, hit and run (https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100509/ARTICLES/100509486) https://www.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=SR&Date=20100510&Category=ARTICLES&ArtNo=100519961&Ref=V1&MaxW=250&border=0 (https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100510/ARTICLES/100519961?p=all&tc=pgall#)A Sebastopol couple suspected of hitting this dog, named Thor, with their car remained in jail Monday charged with drunken driving.
Thor, a Siberian Husky, suffered numerous cuts and “is dazed,” but is on the mend and under observation at an animal clinic, said Eric W Kritz of Graton.
“I was told he was hit and the truck ran over him but not with the wheels,” Kritz said. “If the wheels had gone over him he would have been dead, so he was lucky.”
Michael Craig, 36 and Shoshana Maier, 24, suspected of running Thor over with a 1993 GMC Yukon on Sunday and then leaving the scene, were both due in court Tuesday to be formally charged.
Maier faces more charges than Craig, including that she was driving when the dog was hit on Lone Pine Road in Sebastopol and didn't stop.
She was believed to be driving with a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit, the CHP said. Both she and Craig have licenses that are suspended for prior DUIs, CHP Officer Jon Sloat said Monday.
Soon after the 6 p.m. incident, Lone Pine Road resident Kristina Derkos happened on the scene. Thor was in the middle of the road, she said, blood running from his mouth and staining his white coat.
A couple was kneeling by the dog trying to help, but things looked grim, Derkos said.
“I've been around animals all my life, and sick and injured animals, and I thought he was a goner,” she said.
Derkos raced home to get her husband and 12-year-old son — who thought to bring a blanket to help lift Thor — and returned to find more neighbors trying to help. Together they lifted the dog, which was “screaming in pain,” into her car.
Events were scrambled further when the Yukon came barreling back through the scene, Derkos said: “People started screaming ‘Stop and slow down, you're going to hit someone,' they said, ‘that's the guy that hit him, that's the car that him him,'” she said.
The Yukon had returned, with the drivers now apparently having switched places. But the car sped off without stopping. Another couple hopped in a car to give chase, she said, an account the CHP confirmed.
The couple, whose names were not available Monday, followed the Yukon for close to an hour, until it pulled into a driveway on Bloomfield Road.
CHP officers found Craig and Maier there and arrested them after questioning. Craig was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor drunken driving. His bail Monday was $20,000.
Maier was arrested on suspicion of hit and run, drunken driving and driving with a suspended license. Her bail was $35,000.
Kritz said he'd been at a Mother's Day party at his girfriend's Lone Pine Road home and that Thor had “been prancing about in the yard,” which is fully fenced. Thor escaped when the couple went off for a few hours to see “Iron Man 2.”
“Did he dig out or jump out, we don't know,” Kritz said. “But when we came back the neighbors came over and asked whether we owned a white dog.”
Derko said it's the best parts of what could have been a traumatizing event that have stayed with her most.
“The compassion that I witnessed was pretty amazing,” she said.
this was in print edition Chris Smith column: "...Despite the danger that the frightened animal might bite, Kristina said her 12-year-old son, Dylan, insisted on riding back there with him. He held the dog's head and assured him he'd be OK. ... Not long after, word spread among Thor's rescuers that the great, blue-eyed dog would be all right."
Staff Writer Randi Rossmann contributed to this report.