What she thought was the end of an evening walk with her husband down Route 202 in New Hartford turned out to be a dog owner’s nightmare.
“The other two dogs were acting crazy, I knew something was up,” Debi Garfield said.
Garfield said she saw a big bear and two cubs in the woods just before her dog Roxy took off.
“We were screaming for her to stop to not run and she didn't listen and she ran down there,” Garfield said.
At first Garfield thought her lab rescue Roxy steered clear of the black bear and her cubs that came through her backyard Monday night.
“When she came back I noticed on her back she was wet but my husband was like don't you remember she was rolling in the grass,” Garfield said.
She later realized Roxy was in the thick of it.
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“I went to touch her and she yelled then we looked at her side she must have been licking herself because it was just all blood,” Garfield said.
Garfield rushed Roxy to the veterinarian the next morning for emergency surgery.
“They determined that she was actually bit and I think that she might've even been picked up in the bear's mouth because they are that deep,” Garfield said.
Roxy is currently rocking tubs, stitches, and a cone around her head, but she is expected to recover.
DEEP said black bears are very common in New Hartford. There were 115 sightings reported in the town within the last year.
“This bear we might not see it today but it will be back,” Garfield said.
Garfield said Roxy’s brush with the bear was enough.
“She’s a good dog, I think she’s learned her lesson,” Garfield said.
DEEP said they haven’t gotten another report of the bear in the area but at the appropriate time they will set a trap for the bear and then relocate it.
As for Roxy, she’ll get her tubes out on Monday and eventually her stitches out too.
