A ten-week-old puppy covered in its own urine and feces is on the mend after Howard County police and animal control found him a few days ago.
'Eddy' as police officers are calling him couldn't even walk when they found him yesterday. Now police, along with a community, are wondering who'd leave such a young, small animal to die.
It's not too often police say they get calls to Braeburn Road in Columbia.
When they did this week, the call was out of the ordinary.
"When she took the lid off, she found inside a very emaciated puppy who had some wounds and looked like it was very, very poor condition. It couldn't stand or move," Sherry Llewellyn, the public relations director with the department, said.
A homeowner found the brindle pit bull in a storage bin covered in its own urine and feces close to dying.
Someone drilled holes into the bin's lid.
"This case is a bit unusual because the reporting person says the container was not there in the morning and when she returned home in the afternoon, someone had dropped it near her home," Llewellyn said.
A drop off she says was done on purpose.
The puppy couldn't even eat because of the weeks' old food covered in his own excrement left in the container.
"...for leaving him in that condition in the first place and allowing things to get to the point where he was in such dire need of care," Llewellyn said, shocked at the condition of the puppy.
Now Eddy is on the mend, but his road to recovery will be a long one.
"His muscles -- there are problems with his muscles and also he's missing fur and he's very malnourished, but because he's responding so well to treatment it's very promising. In fact, with a little bit of care and recovery time, he will be able to live a happy normal life," she said.
A normal life that was almost cut short because of an abuser.
"You may have seen a dog in the front yard or you may have heard a puppy and now you don't. Those are sort of things we don't necessarily pay attention to on a regular basis, but because of the nature of this case and the cruelty of this case, we're asking people to stop and thing to see if they might have some information," Llewellyn said.
Police say there's no timetable on when Eddy will be fully recovered, but several adoption groups want to take care him when he does.