PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, Va. – A couple is searching for answers after one of their beloved pets was found shot to death in the woods near their home last week.
"These were our kids. We're like empty nesters and… Bruno was one of our children,” a tearful Pam Hennessey told WTVR CBS 6 senior reporter Wayne Covil Sunday.
Pam and her husband Tom are having trouble coming to terms with why someone would shoot their beloved Bruno.
Tom discovered their dogs Bruno and Penny abandoned in Dinwiddie County a year a half ago.
"The two of them had such a bond, Bruno and Penny,” Tom explained.
In fact, the couple's dogs and cats get along so well they often slept together.
Bruno and kitty.
However, when Pam arrived home and only fond Penny this past Monday, she knew something was off.
"I knew something was up, because they're always together, all the time,” she said.
The couple finally found Bruno in the woods just inside their property line Thursday morning.
The woods near the couple's home.
"My husband started kind of looking around -- and lifted his front leg -- and there was a bullet wound in the front of his chest,” Pam said. "This was a blatant, purposeful shot on this dog."
Pam said her veterinarian told her that Bruno did not suffer for long because he “likely dropped immediately or he did not go far” and then collapsed.
Tom and Pam said their other animals have realized something is very wrong, especially poor Penny.
Pam and her husband Tom Hennessey
"She's been depressed. She just seems like she's been hanging around us all the time [and] under my feet constantly,” Tom said.
For a couple whose animals are all rescues, having one shot and killed is simply unthinkable.
"If someone would shoot a dog, a nice dog, a friendly dog, point-blank, I guess there's no end to what they would do with a child or person or anything for that matter,” Pam said.
If you have any information about Bruno’s death, you are urged to call Prince George Crime Solvers at 804-733-2777.
