Family saves dog dragged by truck on freeway

VALLEJO, Calif.

The dog, nicknamed "Freeway," is doing phenomenally well. He is recuperating from his horrific ordeal at a veterinary hospital in Vallejo. Remarkably, the German Shepherd puppy is navigating rather nimbly on just three legs after his rear leg was amputated Tuesday.

A woman and her son were driving on Interstate 780 last week when they saw the dog dangling from the side of a pick-up truck with a rope around its neck. "I noticed something kind of flapping in the wind behind this black truck. Got a little closer, noticed it was the dog," Angie Porter recalled. "Panic mode. We started screaming. I'm laying on my horn, trying to catch up to the person. He was going pretty fast. And, he was just being drug and strangulated at the same time, kind of flopping around."

The rope eventually snapped and the dog rolled into a freeway wall. Porter stopped to help and called 9-1-1. The driver of the pickup sped away. It has been touch and go all week since the dog arrived at the hospital trembling and in shock, but the vet says he is looking much better and will make it through the ordeal.

He was reunited with the woman who saved him and her son Wednesday afternoon. She says she may just adopt him. At the least, she will think about it.

It will take four more weeks for Freeway to completely heal. The Humane Society of the North Bay is funding his medical care but they are desperately looking for donations to help him and other animals in awful circumstances.

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