Proverbs 31:8-9
Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute.
Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.
It was in the early morning hours of March 5th 2021 when Norman Gale Cummings Jr. crept out of his home at 150 Riverside Drive in Stuart VA. He was carrying the, helpless little dog who’s life he intended to end.
The temperature outside was below freezing at 31° F and a severe frost had coated the entire creek bottom where he lives.
Norman Cumming’s intentions as he placed the helpless creature in the ditch next to the creek on Riverside Drive in Stuart, was that the animal, his recently estranged wife Angela’s dog Tucker, would soon be dead!
That was almost the case.
It was about 7:25 in the morning when the daughter of the Cummings next door neighbors came to drop her own daughter off at the grandparents for the day.
This was a very fortunate thing for the badly neglected and abused dog. This would not have occurred except for the fact that STEP Inc. where the child attended preschool was not in session that day.
The young Mother saw a ball of black fur in the ditch, stopped her car and got out to investigate. The condition of the dog that she found there was shocking. The tiny dogs shivering was the only indication of life, other than that the animal was stiff and cold to the touch. The matting and filth on the dog was so severe that the dogs features were actually obscured. It was painfully obvious that the pitiful little pup had been severely and criminally neglected
It would later come to light that the overall care for the animal, by her own admission, had been the responsibility of Angela Cummings as this had been her dog.
The dog was rushed into the the house where it was wrapped in an electric blanket and fed warm water from a dropper until the threat of hypothermia had passed. Upon evaluation the dog was found to be blind and deaf, one eye was missing altogether. His malnourishment was so profound that he was literally just skin and bones.
The pup was nursed throughout that day until the daughter returned from work and brought the little guy home to her house.
This is Buddy or as the Cummings called him, Tucker. He was getting his first warm bath in what turned out to be six years. These photos were taken on March 5th 2021 the day that he was found. This shows the extent of the flea infestation. Those black specks in the bottom of the tub are mostly fleas!
In fact the flea infestation was so bad that a veterinary examination and tests would show that the little fur ball was anemic from blood loss. The fleas had literally been eating the dog alive!
Veterinary Report Pages- 1 2 3
Another peculiar behavior that this dog had when it was found, was that it could only walk in very small circles. It was later discovered that the dog had been shut up in a series of small bathrooms for six years all the while living in its own filth. The pups world had been such a small area for so long that it had learned to walk only within those restrictive Boundaries.
Stay tuned here for more on this true story