By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – A dog found with a 10-inch gash across its throat in Greene on Monday may have been attacked by a wild animal, veterinary officials said Tuesday.

The collie-shepherd mix was found wounded and bleeding on a porch at Allen Pond and Hooper roads. On Tuesday, the dog was recovering at the Lewiston Veterinary Hospital, but no one had come forward to claim it. And the nature of the animal’s wounds remained a mystery.

“We can’t say for sure that it was a wild animal,” said Margaret McCloskey, a co-manager of the animal hospital on Stetson Road. “But something big and bad got at this dog.”

In addition to the gash around the animal’s neck, the dog’s left front leg appeared to have been chewed on, McCloskey said. There was no indication that it was a person that caused the wounds.

“We’re pretty convinced that it’s a large-animal wound,” McCloskey said.

The dog, tentatively named “Buddy” by hospital staff, is believed to be between three and four years old. As news about its wounds began to circulate on Tuesday, the animal hospital received numerous calls from people purporting to have seen wild animals in the Greene area in recent days. At least two callers suggested it might be a cougar, possibly a black one, McCloskey said. Others guessed it was a mountain lion.

Guesswork aside, the staff at the animal hospital was continuing to treat the dog Tuesday while waiting to hear from the owners. The dog appeared to be clean and well-fed when Animal Control Officer Wendell Strout brought him in.

“He definitely looks owned,” McCloskey said. “He’s responding really well to treatment. He’s walking around, very friendly and wagging his tail. He’s a sweetheart.”

After Strout brought the animal to the veterinary hospital, he then had to find a way to pay for the surgery. In the end, the cost was divided among the town of Greene, the Humane Society and the hospital.

By late Tuesday night, there were no further clues to the nature of the dog’s injuries. Veterinarians at the animal hospital said there is a possibility that Buddy could have been mauled by a bigger dog rather than a wild animal. Strout suggested there may be an even more mundane cause.

“It could have been a barbed-wire fence,” he said.

Meanwhile, Maine cryptozoologist Loren Coleman suggested there is a correct way to go about investigating.

“We always go with the most logical answer. In this case, the most logical would be a badger or a coyote,” Coleman said. “If I were investigating this, I would start asking in a widening circle whether people in that area have seen damage to livestock. If there are reports of injury to livestock, I’d start looking at the cats.”

It is Coleman’s nature never to rule out more fantastic possibilities. A big part of his job is to track down reports that may be linked to creatures that so far are only rumored to exist. Bigfoot, for instance. “In the East, we actually see many Bigfoot attacks on dogs,” Coleman said. “They absolutely despise dogs.”

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