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Deputy, fiancee adopt three-legged dog




Deputy Jesse Asbury of the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office holds his new dog, Murphy. Asbury and fiancee Lindsey Stever adopted Murphy after he was struck by a car, requiring one of his legs to be amputated. Nicholas Schnittker | Times

Deputy Jesse Asbury didn’t plan to adopt Murphy when he brought the three-legged dog home to recover from a front-leg amputation. But once his fiancee Lindsey Stever got a look at Murphy, the pup’s forever home was never in question. 

“Very loving. He’s a puppy, so he’s teething. He’s trying to get his mouth on everything,” Asbury said as Murphy laid between his legs, trying his best to get his mouth around the toe of the deputy’s boot.



Wilson County Animal Enforcement, a division of the sheriff’s office, picked Murphy up early one morning after someone called the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office to report a dog in the road that had been hit by a car. 

When he arrived at work that morning, Asbury took Murphy to the Cottage Animal Clinic. A veterinarian prescribed some painkillers for the dog while Animal Enforcement looked for his owner.

“We spent a few days posting online trying to find the owner,” Asbury said. “Nobody came forward, so the dog was in the shelter about 14 days.”

Eventually, Sheriff Calvin Woodard told Animal Enforcement to take the dog back to the Cottage Animal Clinic and see what he needed. Asbury said after an X-ray, Dr. Abelina Gaona recommended that the leg be amputated. 

“I went ahead and volunteered to kind of watch him while he recovered because of being amputated, he had like three different medicines he had to take,” Asbury said. “We wouldn’t have the means here at the shelter to accommodate that, especially because he would have to be watched and make sure he doesn’t mess with the wound.”

Asbury said Animal Enforcement couldn’t have put Murphy up for adoption because of the injury, but Stever wasn’t going to let the dog go back to the shelter anyway.

“Once she’s seen the dog, she’s like, ‘Yeah, he ain’t going back to the shelter, we’re going to adopt him,’” Asbury recalled.

Asbury said Woodard waived the adoption fees for Murphy.

“I’m grateful for Sheriff Woodard for taking the initiative to get him taken care of, and we just kind of fell in love with him,” Asbury said.