Dog killed after someone tied his legs, threw him on to I-80

VACAVILLE, Calif. (Fox 40) - In a Vacaville parking lot Saturday Deb Ferrara was crocheting like she does almost every day.
"This is what you do when you retire," Ferrara said.

But that day was different than others because there was something missing. Her dog Rex would always keep her company, stitch after stitch.

Rex got out of his Vacaville home Thursday while Ferrara was at a friend's funeral. She frantically looked for the 18-month-old puppy for hours, then she got a call.

"And she said, 'Do you have a little white dog?' I said, 'Yeah, I do. You found him?'" Ferrara recalled.

Monica Andersen and her fiance, Erik Gow, did find Rex while driving by the Davis Street exit off eastbound Interstate 80. But how they found him wasn't the news Ferrara wanted.

"All we saw was this white thing come flying out of a blue Prius," said Monica Anderson, who witnessed what happened to Rex.

Andersen says Rex's two back legs were tied with plastic. She got out to save him, but says another car hit Rex before she got to him.

They found Ferrara's number on his collar and made the call.

"When she pulled up, seeing her cry, it broke our hearts," Gow and Anderson said.

Ferrara's heart was also broken. Rex was her everything.

"He was the sweetest little dog," she said. "He was my 24/7 companion. I'd had him since he was just a pup."

Thinking about how he died has been too much to handle for Ferrara and thinking about who threw him from the car and why has been even harder.

"I wonder how scared he was," Ferrara said. "Nobody should be that scared."

So she sits in her car, with a bowl of dog food still inside from their last drive together, and she keeps her hands busy to keep her mind still.

"It makes me focus on something other than my life," Ferrara told FOX40.

Anderson says she saw Rex being thrown from a blue Prius. Anyone with information should get in touch with the Vacaville Police Department.