DENVER -- Local NextDoor App users are rallying behind the owner of a 13-year-old dog attacked by a coyote.
Lisa Osborne is an animal lover to the core, and up until two weeks ago, she never thought she'd be posting about her dog being attacked.
"It was about 5:30 in the morning a couple of Sunday's ago, and I woke up to what sounded like a rabbit being attacked in the backyard, and something just felt weird about it. I woke up, and my husband and I went running outside, and it was Sadie," she said.
Sadie, her dog, had been bitten several times by a coyote.
"I ran and grabbed a towel really quick and ran back, and [my husband] was bringing her up the stairs from the yard. She was just dripping in blood. Blood was just dripping everywhere. I said, 'please just wrap her in the towel, apply pressure, don't hurt her.' We were both pretty panicked. It was scary," said Osborne.
Immediately after the attack, she and her husband jumped into action, rushing their small dog to a vet hospital.
It was once she had dropped Sadie off that she took to the NextDoor App with one goal in mind.
"I just wanted people to know that I'm an animal lover to the core, and something like this could've been avoided. I was wanting to show people how this happened. If I could help one person save their dog, that's what I wanted to do," said Osborne.
Her post quickly garnered concern and prayers from people in her community she'd never met.
"The turnout of people just contacting me and writing me was overwhelming, overwhelming," she said.
Among those concerned was Don Beck, a complete stranger to Osborne.
"After the first post, I kept saying 'man, I hope she follows up with a second post,'" said Beck.
He decided to contact the veterinarian hospital Osborne took Sadie to directly to help pay for the bill, eventually setting up a donation account.
"I thought that by going through the vet, it offered full transparency, and 100% of the money went to the cause," he said.
After posting about the donation avenue on the NextDoor App, Beck said donations flew in.
"In two days, I think we were already at $2,500. Then it went to $5,000; then it went to $6,000," said Beck.
Osborne emphasized the NextDoor post was never about bringing in donations for Sadie's vet bill, instead, making her dog-owning neighbors aware of coyote danger.
She said she's overwhelmed by the kindness and willingness to give shown to her by complete strangers, something she said she'll never forget.
"Thank you, it's the kindest thing that I've seen a community do, and I'll never forget it," said Osborne.
