In small town America it always seems so empty when a newspaper publishes a headline without the story. In the era of social media when people judge other people by those headlines, most often choosing the worst possible interpretation, lives are damaged.
One such story appeared lately and deserves a second look, a look at the story behind the story.

Here’s the headline from the Ukiah Daily Journal, 
“Dog hangs itself in Ukiah Walmart parking lot”.
The social media fallout from that story lead to this headline, 
“Owner of dog that died in Ukiah Walmart parking lot charged with negligence”
As a pet lover and part of a dog rescue group, this made sense. I mean, how the heck did anyone think it was ok to leave a dog tethered in the back of a pickup truck? You see it all the time, dogs on long leads, tied in the back of trucks—all accidents waiting to happen, right? Thousands of dogs die this way every year. This person must pay.

And then comes the story behind the headline, the story about real people living real life.
Blue was a nine year old lab and pit bull mix. He was adopted by Dustin Kotterman as a puppy. He was well loved. He had a sister named Bellacera, Bella for short, and together they were family, it was just the three of them, for nine years.

Blue and Bella loved living on the ranch where they were free to run. 
Blue especially loved being outside and he loved being with his Dad.

After his stint as a decorated soldier in the military for over 6 years and Iraq for one of those years, Dustin settled in Mendocino County. He became part of the community by starting a business and supporting local charities. Dustin is a highly regarded of member of the business community, always there when people needed a donation, a willing hand, a kind word.
And then came the day that the world crashed around that little family of three. 
It was a beautiful day, everyone thought it was a great idea to go for a ride and some lunch with Grandma. So they loaded up and off they went.
When they got to town, the two dogs were tethered on a very short leads (just long enough for the dog to stand straight or lie down), tethers designed to prevent the dogs from jumping out of the truck. The truck was parked in the shade in viewing distance from the restaurant, maybe a few hundred feet away. As had been done, maybe, a hundred times without incident.
No one knows what happened that caused Blue to end up outside the bed of the truck. People were reported around him, so maybe he was protecting his truck and slipped? His head was still inside the truck with his back end outside of it. Anyone that may have witnessed it has yet to come forward.

A Good Samaritan from Walmart gave him mouth to mouth trying to save his life. Nothing succeeded.

Dustin saw the commotion and raced to his truck to see his baby was gone. Grief took over as he demanded people to leave him and he sobbed over the dog until the police came. They agreed it was an accident and left.
Six hours of digging in the hard, clay dirt was required to obtain the final resting place for Blue, his favorite place on the ranch, a little spot where he could look over his whole ranch. That is where he rests today.
Bella and Dustin are still deeply grieving the loss of Blue, and added to that grief now is a charge by the DA’s office.
We, a core group of people that know Dustin, his dogs and his character, are asking that the DA of Mendocino County drop the charges against Dustin Kotterman in the death of his dog, Blue. Dustin has proven that he is a man of character and should not be held criminally liable for the accident that took the life of his beloved baby boy.

Links to newspaper articles:
http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/…/Dog-hangs-itself-in-Ukia…​http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/…/Owner-of-dog-that-died-i…