Beloved boxer pet recovers from gunshot wound

When Sarah McCurry's wedding got crashed, she didn't mind at all. In fact, the fellow sitting in the back was very polite. He sat up when the bride passed, grinned, then sat back down and waited patiently for her to say her wedding vows. He was, after all, a member of the family and the only reason he didn't get an invitation was because, well, dogs can't read.

Rufus is an unregistered 4-year-old boxer owned by Sarah's parents, Joe and Susan McCurry of Wartrace.

"The day of the wedding, he kept showing up at the ... church and wouldn't stay home," said Joe. "So my wife said, 'Oh, just let him stay.'"

But now Rufus the wedding crasher, Rufus the family member, Rufus the boxer has been shot, and the family is devastated.

For his own safety, they left the dog at a boarding kennel before heading out on a family trip. Rufus vanished from the kennel Thursday and was found four days later, the victim of a gunshot wound.

"The vet's 99 percent sure it was a gunshot wound," said Joe. "He was in surgery 3 1/2 hours."

There was no serious damage done to any major organs done by the bullet, said Joe.

"It went in and made a mess coming out," he said. "It took that long to sew him up."

The saga began when the McCurrys dropped Rufus off at the kennel.

"We took him to a kennel -- (Kristina's) Kountry Kritters on Rippy Ridge Road -- Wednesday night and left him. We went to Ohio," said Joe. "Kristina (Carlson) called me Friday and said they had not seen Rufus in 24 hours."

The family left Ohio and immediately came home, but not before Joe called his son in Wartrace and started the search.

Rufus, a tan, or fawn, color with a black mask and a white blaze on his chest, was staying in one of the kennels that has an outdoor run. Beyond that run, said Joe, is another fence, about 4 1/2 feet high. In order for Rufus to get out, the gates to both the run and the fence would have to have been open.

"They don't know how he got out," he said Monday morning, before the dog was found. "We've been scouring the area for him. It's solid woods out there."

Rippy Ridge is a hilly part of the countryside near Normandy Lake and Wartrace. Joe, his son, Kristina and anyone else they could dragoon into helping went out looking, calling Rufus' name and posting flyers at convenience stores.

"Everybody's been real helpful. We asked the postal carrier who works in that area and all of the bus drivers to keep their eyes out," said Joe, who even asked a friend who works for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency to watch for the dog. "You don't realize how many people you know until you need them."

Despite the somewhat fierce boxer expression, he's actually very gentle and even a little timid around strangers.

"But only at first," said Joe. "He loves people. He comes to his name. He's just a big old family dog."

The boxer was found near Highway 130. A woman found the injured dog and called Kristina Monday, who picked the dog up and took it to the office of veterinarian Bobby West in Wartrace. Dr. Dana Garrett began piecing the boxer back together.

"Hopefully, he'll be fine," said Joe. "He's our fourth child."