Dog taken from yard, shot in the street in Racine

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RACINE, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A pit bull puppy is recovering after being shot in broad daylight. 

The owner says she doesn't know why someone would hurt the puppy but believes it could've been a theft gone wrong. 

"It's just kind of frustrating that someone would hurt such an innocent animal."

Nine-month-old pit bull Bella now walks with a limp, after her owner says she found the dog shot outside of her home in the middle of the street. 

"She was shot in the chest and it ended up right down below her rib cage," Bella's owner said. 

Police say it happened around 8:00 Wednesday morning near Superior and Hamilton. The owner tells me she put the dog in the backyard that morning and went back inside the house to go to sleep. She woke up shortly after to neighbors banging on her door telling her Bella had been shot. 

"It was heartbreaking because my dog is the sweetest thing, all the neighbor kids play with her, everybody knows she's a friendly dog so we really don't know why they would do it to her," the dog's owner told CBS 58. 

Bella had emergency surgery to get the bullet removed how the dog ended up in the middle of the street is still unclear, but her owners think someone may have been trying to take her. 

"We don't know how she got from the backyard to the front yard, her collar wasn't broke. It was found broke once she got in the middle of the road where the bullet shell was found," Bella's owner said. 

Moving forward, the owner says she won't leave Bella outside alone. 

She'll probably always have supervision now, because you can't trust anybody, even in your own neighborhood. 

The owner also says Bella has a follow-up appointment in a few weeks to see if one of her legs can be saved. 

Police are still investigating and there is no word on any suspects. 

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