Would you sit in a closed-up car for hours? It’s very doubtful that you would! On a sunny afternoon in Mississippi? You’d die from the heat, right? It gets really hot inside a closed-up car, and there’s little air.

On Tuesday approximately 1 p.m., I visited the Under-the-Hill Saloon. Within minutes, the other patrons and I were made aware of a dog in distress. This grossly overweight, elderly, Rottweiler-mix had been left in a vehicle illegally parked on Silver Street with only one window open about two inches.

Luckily the car was left unlocked. Someone opened the door and the dog fell out onto the hot pavement. The dog was in an advanced stage of heatstroke — gasping for air, unresponsive and in convulsions.

The saloon’s bartender, Beth Hite, carried three large buckets of water from the saloon which she carefully poured on the dog while I spread it out and massaged the dog. Another male patron got a blanket from my van and with the help of someone else lifted the dog off the hot blacktop and onto the shady sidewalk.

Beth called the Natchez Police and was put in contact with Lisa Smith, the animal control officer. Lisa came and took the dog to Dr. Savant’s office. The man who helped us called Dr. Savant later and was told the dog was “better but not out of the woods.” The poor animal’s temperature was 107 degrees.

Today is Thursday, and I hear from Beth that the dog was returned to the owner Wednesday.

What? Here’s the dog you almost killed, have a nice day? This is a clear case of animal cruelty with a lot of witnesses. It is my hope that there are things going on that I am not aware of, specifically animal cruelty charges being filed against the owner.

That’s my hope. My wish is that the owner suffer the same torture he put his dog through.

Robin Stockfelt

Adams County resident