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That’s when she discovered that her beloved dog “Biggy,” a cocker spaniel she’s had for about a decade, had been “beaten very badly.”
After rushing him to the vet, she learned the sickening extent of his injuries: a concussion, liver trauma, a black eye and other damage that left the normally friendly canine withdrawn and fearful.
The injuries, Charles was told, could only have come from being struck or kicked.
“He’s almost back to being himself, a big goofy dog, he totally looks like Alf,” she said, referring to the character from an ‘80s sitcom about a wisecracking extraterrestrial living with a human family. “He’s getting better, but he’ll never get back to himself 100 percent.”
Biggy was still at the vet this week. Charles does not yet know the final cost for his medical treatment but expects it will be substantial.
A Bayonne police spokesman Thursday confirmed the attack but declined to provide additional information, citing the ongoing investigation.
Charles is at a loss to explain why anyone would hurt her dog, but she does blame herself for using only the bottom lock on her door, which she learned could be easily unlocked.
And she also has no idea who might have committed the crime.
“I don’t have anyone, no boyfriend, a bitter anybody in my life who would do something like this,” said Charles, who lives next door to her daughter. Footage from a security camera shows a white van and people approaching her door who Charles believes may have been responsible for the attack, but she does not recognize them.
The strange circumstances of the crime, which was reported to police by the veterinarian who’s treating Biggy, led authorities to question her closely. She will also be subject to periodic visits from animal control officers who will check up on Biggy once he’s home again-- scrutiny which Charles does not object to.
In fact, she’s posted about the attack on social media and readily agreed to speak with the press in order to help spread the word, she said. She also wants to issue a warning to her fellow Bayonne residents.
“I didn’t lock my doors for five years,” she said. “Lesson learned.”
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