45°
“It looked like the second that this happened she ran into a busy highway after the animal the neighbors said they saw her chasing,” owner Julianne Peralta said. “Someone hit her with their car and just kept going and did not even report it.
“I am trying to stay positive and think that at least it happened quickly and she did not suffer or feel any pain.”
Delila, a 6-year-old former therapy dog, was last seen Saturday afternoon on Abbott Avenue.
Her husband had just brought home a new puppy and went into the couple’s apartment to cage him. As he did, Delila went dashing past him down the steps.
“My husband didn’t think anything of because she never runs away,” Peralta said. “When he went downstairs the door was closed, so he thought maybe she went to the basement or to someone else’s apartment.
“But she was nowhere to be found.”
The couple was worried because of a busy intersection behind their home. But there were no reports of a dog struck. Delila’s body was found sometime after, however.
Delila “was never just a dog to me,” Peralta said. Rather, she was “family, my daughter,” she said.
She promised to be “even more careful” with their new pooch, Samson, “so the same thing does not happen to him.”
Click here to follow Daily Voice Fort Lee and receive free news updates.
