Snatched Dog 'Crawled Her Way Home'

Until the wee hours of June 6, Debra Viticonte-Martin had an early morning routine of interrupting her sleep and letting her two small dogs out for a potty break.

Just like any other morning, when Bella Lucy and Mia Ethel started sniffing around near the giant oak tree in the front yard of her rural property, Viticonte-Martin went inside to get a glass of milk.

"That morning I heard a huge scuffle," she recalled. "Mia was howling. I heard Bella with her yap."

She started back outside.

"When you look out, it's just totally darkness," she said.

There in the darkness was Mia running around in circles looking startled.

"Mia was howling," she said.

Bella had vanished.

Panicked, she woke up her husband, James Martin, and the two went outside with flashlights looking for their beloved 4-pound Pomeranian.

Bella was gone without a trace.

"We didn't think it was a coyote," Viticonte-Martin said. "It was like someone took her."

Viticonte-Martin collapsed on the couch, crying until the break of day.

"I thought maybe if I found her I could at least bury her," Viticonte-Martin said.

The couple searched their 5-acre property. Bella was nowhere in sight.

Later that afternoon, they went outside again. Viticonte-Martin repeatedly called for Bella.

"When we were walking around, Debra heard the dog," Martin said. "I didn't hear her. I thought she was imagining she heard her because she wanted to hear her."

Still, the 5-year-old dog didn't appear that Friday.

The next morning, Martin was sitting out in the couple's lanai overlooking the woods near their home. He was sipping his coffee and smoking when something across the yard by a towering pine tree caught his eye. A squirrel, he thought. He looked closer.

"Then there it was. I saw the white on her face," Martin said.

He started sprinting toward the animal.

"He started screaming her name," Viticonte-Martin recently recalled. "I thought he was dreaming."

"In 30 hours, she crawled her way home," Martin said.

Bella was alive but bloodied, limping and weak. She had cuts on her belly. She had puncture wounds on each side of her tail. Her right front leg appeared to be chewed. She was extremely dehydrated.

After Bella drank some water, they took her to Animal Emergency of Pasco in Port Richey, where veterinarian Tony Remillard treated her.

Two months later, he recalled how dazed Bella was when she came into the emergency center.

"This one I can remember very vividly," he said. "I was telling that story for weeks and weeks."

After examining her, he knew what happened.

"There's no doubt about it: It was a bird of prey," he said. "You could just tell it was talon marks."

The marks on Bella's body matched precisely where a bird would have used its talons when swooping down to grab its target.

His best guess is that it was a great horned owl, something the couple has seen in their area.

The great horned owl is Florida's largest owl. Its wingspan can reach nearly 5 feet. It is a "fierce and nocturnal hunter," according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Their prey consists of anything from rats and rabbits to skunks and cats. They even go after other birds.

Martin, at times, has seen them on his property.

"They're big owls. They're not small, little owls," he said.

Back at the couple's home on Hays Road, they point to the grand oak in front of their house by the driveway where their dogs often visit.

"We think the owl was sitting in that tree right there," Viticonte-Martin said, pointing. "He must have seen her go out. ... When I heard her squeak, we think he must've taken her out there."

"Out there" is the woods surrounding their home. They will never know exactly what happened or even how Bella, a tiny dog, could get away from such a powerful bird. They wonder whether Bella fought tirelessly and then fell out of a tree.

Now that a couple of months have passed, Bella is getting stronger every day and with the exception of some behaviors, such as eating more and sitting differently, she's mostly back to her old self.

The couple is, of course, happy to have their baby back, but some things have changed.

"I won't go out if I can't wake him up," Viticonte-Martin said, glancing at her husband.

"I have to go out and check all the trees with the big searchlight," he added.

They also have noticed something different in Bella's attitude: She seems more alert.

"Owl beware," Martin said. "Bella's on the warpath. She's ready if he comes back."