By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – For the most part, the tale of a collie-shepherd mix that was mauled in Greene earlier this week ended on a happy note. A Greene couple came forward Thursday to claim the dog as their pet, according to officials at the Lewiston Veterinary Hospital. It was there that the dog was treated over three days for a gash to its throat and a chewed-up paw.

“It’s a happy, tail-wagging ending,” said Margaret McCloskey, co-manager of the animal hospital.

But several people in Greene and elsewhere across the state are still perplexed over how the injuries were inflicted on the dog. The owners were not identified and no additional clues surfaced when they came forward.

While nobody knows for sure, most animal experts are leaning toward a big cat – a bobcat, lynx or mountain lion – as the source of the wounds.

“From what I understand, the injuries were to the neck and a paw,” said Christopher Gardner, a cryptozoologist in Bangor. “That’s what cats seem to go for when they attack.”

Gardner is leaning toward a mountain lion. While state biologists admit there have been numerous reported sightings of the animals, none have been confirmed.

Gardner said: “From the research I’ve done and the people I’ve talked to, I don’t think there’s any doubt the mountain lions are back.”

Still others believe it is too soon to rule out a lynx or a bobcat as the beast that attacked the dog. Loren Coleman, considered by some to be the world’s leading cryptozoologist, said he heard from several people who live in the area where the dog was found on Monday. Two of them reported seeing a bobcat or lynx wandering through that area in recent days or weeks.

Joanne D’Unger, who lives in Leeds, stated in an e-mail that she saw such an animal on Quaker Ridge Road in Greene just six weeks ago.

“I saw an animal standing, broadside, in the middle of the road ahead and thought it must be a dog, as it appeared rather small for a deer,” D’Unger wrote. “I quickly realized that I was looking at a cat. … The hindquarters were taller than the forequarters as the back legs appeared to be longer.”

The cat ran back into the woods, D’Unger added.

Another man wrote to Coleman and stated he was driving on Quaker Ridge Road two months ago when he saw what appeared to be a lynx or a bobcat bounding across the road, not far from the intersection at Route 202.

Wendell Strout, the animal control officer who brought the injured collie-shepherd to the hospital, cautioned that the source of the animal’s injuries might not be as exotic as a wild beast. Chances are just as good, he said, that the collie was attacked by a bigger domestic dog.

At the Veterinary Hospital in Lewiston, officials also wonder what caused the wounds to the dog they came to call Buddy. But they were more concerned about the dog’s health as it left the hospital, and all was well in that regard.

“It was a good ending,” McCloskey said. “The staff is just ecstatic.”

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