25 February 2021
Susan Standen and her Maltese mix, Baby Ruth, were inseparable. When Standen would get up to go to another room, she could count on Baby Ruth hopping off the couch to follow.
“She was my shadow,” Standen said. “I’d had her for almost 12 years.”
But emptiness and silence have filled Standen’s Santa Rosa home since Baby Ruth was killed Saturday afternoon in an attack by a large dog that leapt from a nearby vehicle as Standen and Baby Ruth walked their usual route in east Santa Rosa.
The motorist left his vehicle in the middle of the road and raced to pull his dog off of Baby Ruth. It took a few minutes to do so, Standen and witnesses said, and then he got back in his vehicle and drove away.
Baby Ruth died in her arms minutes later as they waited for help on the sidewalk.
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