Disabled veteran gives mouth-to-mouth to loyal support dog shot with arrow

Retired veteran Billy Morris faced a dog owner’s worst nightmare, after realizing his support dog , Cotton, had apparently been shot with an arrow.

Morris noticed Cotton approach him while out feeding the chickens on his mini farm in Oak Grove, Alabama, only to then notice an object poking out of his body.

“When he turned broadside, I noticed he had an object sticking out of his side,” Morris told WBRC. Cotton actually had an arrow in his body, and Morris does not believe it was an accident.

The four-year-old Great Pyrenees is a support dog for Morris, who is a disabled veteran. “He was hardly breathing. He actually laid down at my feet and in that moment I knew he was in serious trouble,” added Morris.

Using his military training, Morris immediately wrapped Cotton up and took him to a veterinarian, having to perform mouth-to-muzzle breathing on his pet on the way.

“I was afraid I was going to lose my dog. He was at less than 20 percent breathing capacity, I was practically breathing for him,” Morris said.

Cotton is now recovering after suffering from collapsed lungs, but Morris isn’t happy to just let things go on as before. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is now looking into the incident and Morris told WBRC that a similar situation happened with one of his neighbor’s dogs recently.

For Morris, Cotton has been a constant in his life over recent times, with him dealing with both his military trauma and going through a divorce . With all of life’s changes, Cotton has been one thing that stayed the same.

“When my son’s not here, it’s just me and him,” he said. “He follows me around the farm here. I just enjoy his company. He’s part of the family.”

Morris is a well-loved and friendly dog in the community and is able to roam the neighborhood.

“We’re coming. We’re coming for you. The community is coming for you,” Morris told WVTM13. “What you’ve done is entirely inhumane and justice will catch up with you.”

Newsweek has contacted Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office for comment.

Last month, a service dog belonging to a former army sergeant was shot in an animal shelter by a man in Florida.

The owner dropped his pet at his friend’s animal shelter as he did every morning, locking him in a kennel an hour before opening. However, a young man approached the cage before staff arrived and shot at the dog, killing her.

A suspect was arrested after surveillance footage captured the whole incident, including the man allegedly taunting and filming the therapy dog beforehand.