MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to Cutler Bay after a woman reported that her 15-year-old Shih Tzu “Gizmo” suffered several stab wounds.
On Thursday, Karen Maisonet said she and her dog had returned home from the Veterinary Emergency Group in Pinecrest and he wandered away while someone was taking out the trash.
Maisonet and her family spent hours searching for “Gizmo” around their apartment complex off Southwest 216 Street and found him yelping faintly.
Maisonet said he was stuck in a canal and was holding onto rocks near Southwest 212 Street and 103 Avenue.
“I jumped in; I grabbed him,” Maisonet said. “I saw blood … I thought it was just him from falling down since he can’t see, but once I got to the vet, they told me it was stab wounds.
“Multiple stab wounds all around his neck and back!”
Vets at the clinic reported the dog suffered seven different injuries and the wounds were spread apart and shaped like straight lines as opposed to circles.
The family has many questions, including how “Gizmo,” both blind and deaf, ended up beyond a fence, across the street, and into a canal and how he was injured.
The family asked the public for help. There were suspicious people in the area between 9 p.m. and midnight when Gizmo had vanished.