AUMSVILLE, Ore. (AP) - A dog found in the mountains east of Salem with a bullet in its jaw and little meat on its bones has a chance to survive.
     
Phyllis Morris, a supervisor at the recently opened Marion County Dog Control and Shelter, said the injured pit bull - nicknamed "Bullet" - survived a month, maybe two, without supplied food or medical attention.

She said the dog has gained some weight since it was brought to the shelter last week, but it's still 20 pounds underweight and needs surgery to have the bullet removed.
     
The dog was rescued by Lonna Chase of Lyons, who was hunting deer near Gates when she came across the malnourished dog.
     
"It was roaming around and making weird sounds - I thought because it had a sinus infection. But he was very friendly," Chase said. "He was so skinny, and he wasn't vicious at all. I definitely knew I couldn't just leave him up there."
     
She tried to lure it into the truck bed with "about a half-pound of jerky." The dog, however, didn't have the strength to jump, so she threw her hunting jacket over the dog in case it tried to bite.
     
Chase took the dog home to Lyons, where she cleaned him up before driving him to the shelter. A veterinarian who happened to be there ordered an X-ray after feeling something in the dog's jaw.
     
"It was when he was looking at the X-rays that he found the bullet lodged in the dog's jaw," Morris said. "It's the diameter of a nickel and surrounded by bone fragment. It's just a miracle this dog survived, and we think he deserves a special home."
     
Morris and the staff speculate that someone intentionally shot the dog through the eye.
     
"Because of the directionality, we figured he had to have been shot on purpose, probably with a handgun," Morris said. "The shot came from above and points down. We suppose it could have been a hunter in a tree and that the bullet was a stray, but it really doesn't look that way to us."
     
Morris said the bullet remains in the dog's jaw, and bone fragments litter the tissue around the site. Morris said the eye can't be saved, but the socket and his sinus cavity can be repaired.
     
"What we're looking at is how to get him the surgery he needs," Morris said. "We don't have the funds to pay for the surgery, so we're hoping to either find someone who will rescue or adopt him and give him the surgery he needs, or find a vet who might donate services."
     
Chase, meanwhile, said she wishes people would get it "through their heads" that they don't have to abandon dogs or shoot them. She said she has turned in several dogs in recent years, and it has almost reached the point where she doesn't want to hunt anymore.
     
"Domestic dogs left up there will die, either by coyote, cougar or bullet," Chase said. "At least this way, maybe now, (Bullet) has a chance at a good life."
   
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)