LITTLETON, Colo — The family of a rescue pup wants to know why she was shot by a person with a pellet gun over the weekend.
The family is concerned their innocent dog may have been targeted.
"When I brought her to the vet I told asked them, 'what if I hadn't let the dogs in to feed them at that moment?' And they said, 'your dog had less than an hour,'" said Julie Wicken, who was watching her daughter's rescued 1-year-old pit bull mix dog, Hazely.
On Sunday, Wicken said she was shoveling her driveway and decided to go inside her house to let her dogs back in the house.
All of the dogs came in except for Hazely.
"I found her in the dog house out in the backyard, and she was barely walking and bleeding," Wicken said.
Wicken and her family quickly took Hazely to the vet but did not know what was wrong with her.
"The vets were able to do an x-ray, and they found a pellet — or a small bullet — in her lungs just past her heart," Wicken said.
The vet told Wicken they weren't sure if Hazely would live, but continued to drain the air and blood out of her lungs.
"Thankfully, Hazely was able to come home today," Wicken said. "But she's not out of the woods yet. She still needs to be monitored by the vet. Her chances went from a 30 percent chance of living; now it's at about a 70 percent chance. We're just praying."
According to Wicken, the pellet is still inside Hazely's lung and will need a $12,000 surgery.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office confirmed with Denver7 that this is an open investigation. If a suspect is identified, they could be facing a felony and serve up to a year and a half in jail.
To help with Hazely's surgery click here.