On this blog, we have long lamented police officers whose sole tool in the toolbox when encountering a dog is GUN. We’ve seen dogs shot while restrained on chokepoles, while locked inside animal shelter cages, while chained in their own yards, and while fearfully cowering in the bushes after fleeing police. The shootings are typically explained away as the officers being afraid for their lives and/or protecting the public, the police department investigates itself, and Bob’s your uncle – no wrongdoing found. But this is a first – and not in a good way.

Last week, a CA deputy was so eager to shoot a dog who barked at him as he approached the dog’s fenced yard, he drew his gun and forgot to aim at the dog, shooting himself in the leg. The deputy was apparently attempting to serve an eviction notice AT THE WRONG HOUSE in Riverside Co when the resident pet barked at the officer. (Note for any I-just-like-to-shoot-pets police officers who may be reading: Barking is the thing that dogs do when strangers approach their home. It’s one of the primary reasons people have dogs.)

The sheriff’s office said the dog was a giant mass of seething hate who intended to eat the officer for an afternoon snack. In order to save his own life, the officer was forced to draw his weapon and fire. The deputy shot himself in the leg and was taken to the hospital for treatment of “non-life threatening injuries”.

But when a local TV news crew arrived on the scene, they found a medium sized dog named Precious playing with his kids inside their fenced yard. They filmed Precious shuffling about the place, tail wagging, tongue lolling out like a goofball. In the video, he looks as if he’s already had his afternoon snack but wouldn’t turn down a Happy Meal.

The sheriff’s office has an explanation for the discrepancy: The sound of gunfire transformed Precious from an eat, swim, make little sharks eating machine to an ambling BFF. Talk about your Magic Bullet Theory.

Precious was not taken into custody by the pound. No word on whether the sheriff’s office ever figured out the right house to serve the eviction notice. Or anything else.

(Thanks to everyone who sent me this story.)