Published: March 24, 2009 11:07 am      

Dog-nappers hit Lindsay area

Jerry Hughes bought his dog in Caddo, Okla. and he called him Okie.

Now Hughes —a 72-year old Cooke County resident — is having a hard time understanding why a brazen group stopped and picked up the eight month old dog.

“I can’t believe they just drove up to my yard and took my dog,” Hughes said.

This isn’t the first time Hughes and his wife have lost pets.

He said a few years ago he had two other dogs.

One of them was a cherished pet named Heck who he found on his doorstep one Christmas Day.

“Me and my wife were sitting in the house and we heard this whimpering noise and I wondered what in the world it was. We went outside and there was little dog in a box.

Hughes said he joked with his wife about getting rid of the tiny puppy.

“But I would never do anything like that,” he said.

Hughes said he and his wife fed the foundling with a bottle.

“He was just a baby,” he said.

Heck grew up and Hughes said he developed a bond with his dog.

“He was special. He was really special,” he said.

The other dog was a sweet Jack Russell terrier.

But Heck was special.

Heck had a habit of stopping by while Hughes was sitting in a chair in his living room.

One day the dog walked up to his owner and lingered by the chair.

The dog seemed uneasy or scared.

At first, Hughes said he didn’t realize anything was wrong.

“I thought he wanted me to pet him,” he said. “So I petted his chest. He always liked me to pet him like this, “ he said, reaching out with his arm.

Heck suddenly slumped at his feet.

“He died in my arms,” Hughes recalled, his eyes full of sorrow.

Outside, he found the couple’s Jack Russell stretched out on the ground, also dead.

“He was stiff, you know. He’d been there a while,” Hughes said.

He believes both dogs were poisoned.

The latest incident finds Hughes grieving all over again.

He said the crime was hard to comprehend.

Two cars drove past his house and Okie - who was a friendly dog — just jumped into one of the cars.

“All they had to do was whistle and he got right in the car,” he said.

He said he didn’t get a good look at the car’s occupants and still cannot describe them.

“I just watched them take my dog. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” he said.

His first concern was that the thieves might hurt Okie.

“Then I realized they weren’t going to do anything to him. They took him because they wanted him,” he said.

Hughes also said he knows there isn’t much anyone can do.

“I called the Lindsay Police and I talked to a (Cooke County) deputy that came out, but I don’t think they can do anything,” he said. “I just had to tell somebody.”