Hello there, My name is Lori Barrow. I am a graduate student at Southern Illinois University in Forestry and work at the local Neighborhood Co-op. I live in Carbondale Illinois with my boyfriend Matios, and our two beautiful dogs, Zoey and Au'gus'stus. Gus is our silly little man who is about 5 years old. Zoey is our newest addition and is around 14 months. Both dogs came to us when we weren't particularly looking for a new companion, yet fit so well into our lives it's hard to imagine a happy life before them. For lack of better words, our dogs mean the world to us. Their die hard adoration and silly antics fill our chaotic life with love and connect us to the natural world within which we choose to spend the majority of our time. On November 17th of 2011, we decided to go for a short hike. Before the hike, we asked ourselves out loud, “where can we go hiking that will be safe.” As foresters, we are conscious about hunting season and respect the time honored practice of humane and sensible hunting practices. We choose a public park owned by GreenEarth (a local land trust that sets aside and preserves small tracts of public land around Carbondale) thinking we wouldn't run into any trouble. Nothing out of the ordinary, we usually take them on 3-5 romps a day in order to get the puppy energy out of Zoe and frequent GreenEarth sites. However, this particular hike would prove to be anything but ordinary. Zoey was shot 3 times by a 22 caliber rifle. I don't know how, but I'll just let you know now before reading more, she is still alive. She was standing about 40 ft. off trail and out of our immediate vision when we heard the first shot. After the first shot was fired, Zoey cried out in pain. Matios and I began running and screaming toward Zoey. The cry that came out of her still pounds in my head when I think about that day. Then the second shot was fired. Again she cried out in pain and again we screamed - there was no mistaking this noise was coming from a dog. There was no mistaking two people frantically screaming out a dogs name. Then the third shot was fired. Zoey was shot in her right cheek, knocking two of her teeth out, between both ears-coming so close to her skull that the fur between the nap of her neck was shaved down from the bullet- and her left hind leg. Taking turns, we carried Zoey out of the woods hiking the half mile or so back to our truck. Zoe was in bad shape...she had lost quite a bit of blood and was starting to fade out on us. Being Saturday, the nearest open veterinary office was an hours drive from Carbondale, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. There, they were able to stabilize her. We never did find out who the shooter was. At this point, I'm not even sure I really want to know. I don't want to know that people like that actually exist in this world. I'm not ignorant, I know that they do, it's just that I choose not to live my life believing the worst in people. You know who taught me that? Zoey. Now she needs some help. After allowing Zoey to recover from the initial shock of the bullet wounds, and reevaluating her leg, our vet found an orthopedic surgeon in St. Louis who thinks he can save her leg. On Wednesday, January 4th, Zoey will go into surgery where they will plate her leg and perform a bone graft. We elected to give Zoey a chance of keeping her leg rather than amputating it as was initially suggested. If you knew Zoe, you'd give her a chance too. Here's where the call for help comes in. The initial estimate for the surgery runs at $3,222.92. Matios and I have put our lives on hold to come to the aid of this remarkable dog. We both work two jobs and try to live as simply as possible. Through the help of our families and friends, we have started to recover from the initial fear and anger brought on by this incident. But with the additional costs of the emergency vet bill, medications, x-rays, and of course living expenses, things are getting tough. Setting aside our pride, we are asking for help. This is attached to a paypal account in which all donations gathered will go toward the ongoing veterinary costs for Zoey. You can also send checks with "Zoey" in the memo to 608 1/2 N. Springer St. Carbondale, IL 62901.You don't need to have a paypal account to donate nor are we asking for any fixed amount. You can give what you feel or just share the story of Zoey. I will be continually updating this page with new pictures of Zoey and her recovery progress. For those of you who want to know more details of exactly what happened, or how the funds will be used, I would be happy to provide further information. You can contact me at my email address, lb463a@siu.edu Whether it's a donation, a share, or even just taking about this story with someone, we want to say thank you. Thank you for your time, and thank you for helping give Zoey a chance.