Dog found on side of Sonoma Co. freeway on the road to recovery

SONOMA COUNTY, Calif. (KTVU) - Donations and would be-adopters are rallying for an injured dog found on the side of the freeway in Sonoma County.

Authorities believe she'd been laying there a day or more, with broken bones and abrasions, and may have fallen or been thrown from a moving vehicle. 

"She's got a broken left leg, a broken pelvis and a broken canine tooth, " Jeff Charter, head of Petaluma Animal Services, which rescued the female pit bull mix. 

After surgery and an overnight stay at a veterinary hospital, the emaciated pup returned to the shelter Wednesday, and was moving around well, seeking out treats being offered.

"You can see how thin she is," observed Charter, "and she's literally been eating all day long."

A pink cast on a broken front leg also wasn't slowing her down.

"She's very inquisitive, and everywhere she goes, she has to check everything out," noted Charter, "and she's very sweet, in spite of being in a rough way."

The dog is between two and four years old, with no tags and no microchip.

Passersby spotted her in bushes alongside the northbound lanes of Highway 101.

She was calm and gentle when shelter staff arrived and moved her.

They named her "Martha" for the nearest exit: Washington Street."

"Clearly, she's got some pretty significant road rash, something happened to her that was fairly traumatic," observed Charter.

Besides the broken leg, Martha has a fractured pelvis and a broken canine tooth. 

She might have been stray, wandered onto the freeway and gotten hit, but if she was dumped or thrown from a car, it wouldn't be unheard of.

"We actually do get reports of that a couple of times a year, and it's usually puppies," explained Chater, "so we're not trying to pre-judge this but if there is a criminal case, we certainly will prosecute that to the full extent of the law."

It appears no one saw how Martha ended up on the freeway shoulder, but judging by her malnourished condition, and patchy coat, she hasn't been fed well in awhile.

Landing at the Petaluma Shelter, by any circumstance, was a life-saver for her and a foster home will continue her recovery for the next few months, before she is put up for adoption.

"We're working hard to figure out where she came from, so we can track down how she came to be in this situation," declared Charter, "it's our job to make sure her life going forward is better than the one she had behind her."