'There Was Flapping of Wings and Then It Was Gone'

Felipe Rodriguez says he thought he was hallucinating when an eagle snatched his sister's little white dog from her yard and disappeared over the trees. Did he really just see that? The AP reports he had. Zoey the 8-pound bichon frise was gone, taken by a hungry raptor Tuesday in Pennsylvania, Rodriguez said. "It seemed like something from The Wizard of Oz," he said. Even more astonishing: Zoey would live to bark the tale. Rodriguez said he was by himself at his sister's home in Bowmanstown, and Zoey was playing in the fenced yard when he heard a loud screech and hurried to the door. "There was flapping of wings and then it was gone," Rodriguez said. He drove around the neighborhood looking for the 7-year-old bichon, to no avail. He assumed Zoey was gone for good.

Rodriguez's sister and her family were devastated. "I did nothing but cry all day," Monica Newhard said. She and her husband scoured the woods for Zoey's body. Little did they know their dog would be found later that afternoon—a full four miles away. Zoey's rescuer was Christina Hartman, who said she was driving on a snow-covered back road when she spotted a furry white lump ahead. "I notice this little frozen dog, icicles hanging from all over. It could hardly move," Hartman said. She wrapped Zoey in a blanket and took her home, feeding the dog two bowls of chicken-and-rice soup. Hartman noticed several small wounds on the back of Zoey's neck, and the dog walked with a limp. She had no collar. Hartman spotted Newhard's public Facebook post Wednesday morning and returned Zoey. "She doesn't want to go out," Newhard said. "I really can't blame her."

(More eagles stories.)