WBRZ - Baton Rouge

DENHAM SPRINGS - It's not the first time a dog's been shot in one Livingston Parish neighborhood.

"We had a dog that was shot a couple of years ago and it was just a little poodle," one woman said.

She declined to give her name because she is afraid. Tuesday night, she heard gunshots right outside her house on Four H Road near I-12 and a cry for help followed.

"Several gunshots," she said, "and I also heard a dog wailing."

After the wailing, the woman saw a truck drive away and she then went to see if she could help.

"I went in my car with my headlights on the road to see if I could find the animal but I couldn't."

She couldn't find the dog because the wounded animal climbed over a ridge and into a ditch.

"It's disgusting that animal was suffering all night," she said.

The dog stayed there until Wednesday morning when another woman happened to find it with a gunshot wound to its eye.

"It was pretty unnerving to see that the dog's eye had pretty much exploded from the inside," Care Animal Rescue of Ascension president Helen Morales said.

Her group is paying for the dog's several thousand dollar veterinarian care.

"The bullet is probably lodged in the brain," Morales said. "They're waiting on the swelling to go down, and once it goes down they can take x-rays and determine if the bullet can be removed."

The SPCA of Livingston Parish is assisting with offering a $500 reward for any tips about the shooting that lead to an arrest.