**WARNING: Some readers may find these pictures disturbing**
WAYNE COUNTY, Ohio — A family in Wayne County is struggling to understand why someone would shoot their dog. The yellow Labrador Retriever was shot with a bow and arrow, and now police are involved in finding the person who did it.
Nine-year-old Cosmo is playing and enjoying his front yard outside of Wooster, just days after his family was terrified that he might not survive.
“She came home from work and found my dog sitting in their yard with an arrow clearly through his chest,” said dog owner Chatfield Redick.
Wednesday afternoon, a neighbor called Redick to say they found his family’s yellow lab, shot with an arrow. The Redick family says their invisible fence malfunctioned, allowing Cosmo to get out of their yard, roaming through fields and woods. Redick picked up Cosmo and took him to a vet.
“He was, ‘Oh man, that’s in a terrible spot, that’s right through the middle of his chest,’ and he started explaining how all the vital organs and everything,” Redick said about the veterinarian’s evaluation of Cosmo.
Redick took Cosmo to Copley to have surgery to remove the arrow.
“The x-ray showed that it missed his heart and lungs by millimeters, is what the doctor said, and pretty much split the two of them, so it was pretty remarkable that it didn’t catch any vital organs,” Redick said.
Miraculously, Cosmo was able to return home the next day. The family is optimistic he’ll make a full recovery.
“Today, he’s pretty much acting like his normal self, ready to go running and play on the farm,” said Redick.
The Redick family is hoping someone has information about who shot Cosmo and why. Chatfield says he believes it was done maliciously.
“To shoot a bow accurately, you gotta be within 40 or 50 yards, and you can clearly tell he’s not a deer and the location of the shot, you know, that was a really good shot to kill. I actually think they shot to kill him. It’s frustrating that somebody would do that to my family dog,” Redick said.
Anyone with information about the case, is asked to call the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office.