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Woman searching for owner of dog found on I-75

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A small, skinny Dachshund mix is being fostered by a woman who stopped on a busy highway to save the dog.

Sherri Johnson said it was just after 10 a.m. on Saturday. She was driving along Interstate 75 when she saw something that shocked her.

“He was just sitting there, looking back and forth as if to decide which way to run,” she said.

Johnson was driving past what she now knows to be a 6- 8-pound Dachshund mix she thinks belonged, at some point, to a loving home.

“He has a yellow and black collar, and he was chipped,” she said. She said that the vet told her the information retrieved from the dog’s microchip was invalid or out-of-date.

Johnson took the dog to Lake Dow Animal Hospital for treatment. He was found to have road rash and a large bump on his head, which Johnson said has since improved. He did not have any broken bones, which she said discounted her thought that he was most likely hit by a car.

Johnson hopes that someone will come forward as the dog’s owner, since she has two dogs and cannot adopt another.

For now, the dog she described as “a mush” is happy sleeping at her feet and making himself at home in her Locust Grove home.

“I can’t believe somebody would just dump this little sweetheart,” she said.

Johnson said the dog is not snippy, does not bark, and is not food aggressive.

She said it obeyed her commands to sit and stay on the lane divider of the busy highway on Saturday. She also says he comes, sits and stays on command.

Doctors at the animal hospital said the finding the dog’s owner would be much easier if the microchip had current information.

“A microchip is useless if the information is out of date,” Dr. Marissa Craig said. “Most of the time, it is just a matter of going online to your account and changing it yourself or making one phone call to the company.”

Johnson said she was contacted by PAWS Atlanta, who identified the dog as being named "Speedy." She said they told her he was last adopted from the organization in January 2012. He will be taken back to PAWS this weekend and will be available for adoption, Johnson said.

For more information on possibly adopting "Speedy", contact PAWS Atlanta at 770- 593-1155 or visit www.pawsatlanta.org.