COCHECTON — When Rebecca Villavicencio thinks about the person who shot her 10-month-old puppy, Tango, the Cochecton mom doesn't mince words.

“I think what an a--hole,” she says ruefully.

The Villavicencio family doesn't know who would aim a gun and fire at their dog or even when it happened.

Rebecca's husband Faustino was returning from a walk with Tango and his sister, Samba, on December 2 when the puppies suddenly took off across their yard, heading straight into the woods. Faustino yelled for the pups and banged their dog dishes, heading after them, but he was no match for the dog's boundless energy.

A neighbor reported spotting the dogs near his home, telling the couple he “almost shot them because I thought they were coyotes.”

Worried, the couple pressed him. “Did you shoot them?” Faustino asked.

“No,” the neighbor responded, “I wouldn't hurt a fly.”

But when Samba returned to the family's home, Tango did not, despite Rebecca and Faustino spending hours walking the neighborhood, calling his name.

That evening, Rebecca logged onto Facebook and posted photos of Tango, asking neighbors to keep an eye out and call her if they spotted the Tamaskan/Malamute mix.

The photos were shared dozens of times, and as the family hung flyers in Peck's, Heinle's and local gas stations, folks approached to say they'd seen Tango on Facebook.

“I hoped maybe if word gets out, hunters, if they saw him, they'd know this isn't a wolf, it's a dog,” Rebecca said of the flyers.

Unfortunately, as the days went by, there were no sitings of the dog, not even when Faustino took a four-hour walk with a friend along the path of the Millennium Pipeline that runs near their house, strewing bits of Tango's bed along the way in hopes that he'd pick up the scent and follow it home.

“I think I cried all week,” Rebecca said. “I'd go out and walk and call for him and come home and cry. My oldest would say, ‘Don't cry Mom, he'll come back.'”

“They never really gave up hope,” she says of 10-year-old Laine, 8-year-old Rio, 6-year-old Jude, and 4-year-old Camellia.

Then came a banging on the front door on December 11. State troopers had been called to Cochecton with reports of a wounded animal on the side of the road. There they found Tango in a ditch, bloodied and struggling.

A neighbor spotted the flashing lights and told them the dog was the Villavicencios and had been missing for a week and a half.

At the time, they couldn't tell what had happened to Tango — if he'd been hit by a car, attacked by a coyote, or been shot.

As troopers rushed Rebecca and Tango across the county to the animal hospital, all she could think was “if he dies, at least he won't die alone.”

When they arrived at the vet's office, his prognosis was uncertain. They'd have to do X-rays to determine the extent of the damage. But the cause was clear: a bullet had torn through his front leg and ripped on his belly, exposing the tender flesh of the Tamaskan/Malamute's core.

Rebecca wonders who did it. Was it someone who shot the dog on purpose? Or was it an accident, someone who fired at the pup, only to realize their mistake?

If it's the former, she's angry. If it's the latter, she's angry too. “Did they move it closer to the road because they hoped someone would see it, and they didn't want to deal with it?” she wonders.

Tango will lose his front leg because of the shooting, and the family's left with a veterinary bill of nearly $5,300 at a time when they can ill afford more bills.

“My mom asked if my kids were going to have a Christmas,” Rebecca says. “We had bought a few things before this happened, thank goodness.”

To help cover Tango's care, Cochecton Dog Control Officer Tamara DePaolo has started an online fundraiser at GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/tango039s-medical-cost-he-was-shot, a fact that's left the family feeling grateful for their community.

“I hate asking for help,” Rebecca says, “but Tamara was at the vet with me, and they were saying I needed to give them $1,000 right then and there!”

Donations can also be made to reduce the family's bill at Catskill Veterinary Services in Rock Hill, where Tango will undergo surgery this week.