VENETA, Ore. -- The family dog that was hit by a truck and left for dead in Veneta underwent lifesaving surgeries Wednesday thanks to help from the community.
The Shay family brought Copper to the Veneta Veterinary Hospital Tuesday morning, and he stayed there overnight so they could begin the surgeries on two of his legs as soon as possible.
Copper's legs were badly damaged in the crash earlier this month when a truck drove away after hitting him.
RELATED: VENETA FAMILY RACES AGAINST CLOCK TO SAVE DOG
Copper's owner, Athena Shay, said it left her family heartbroken and with an $8,000 veterinarian bill. That's when the community came to rescue and raised the money they needed, contributing the funds to a GoFundMe account for Copper.
"We were preparing our kids ... once he's out of pain meds, it looks like we're probably going to be putting him down," Shay said. "But then (KEZI) ran the story and the community was amazing ... beyond what I ever expected."
Wednesday afternoon Copper had both legs worked on.
"They're actually going to have two surgeons performing the operations simultaneously; one is going to be working on the front leg, amputating that ... and one's going to be reconstructing the back leg," Shay said before the surgeries took place.
Staff at the veterinarian hospital said they do a lot of orthopedic surgeries, but this is the first time they've had two veterinarians working on one patient at the same time.
Shay said she and her family are very grateful to the community for making this possible.
Just spoke to staff at the Veneta Veterinary Hopsital and they say Copper (the dog hit & left for dead earlier this month) is undergoing surgery right now. It was made possible by the thousands of dollars raised by the community. Hear from his owners on @KEZI9 tonight pic.twitter.com/Yq0qHyoo4r
— Amber Wilmarth (@amberwilmarth) July 18, 2018
