Help needed in search for two large white dogs and their owners

With a low body temperature, Otto is in an oxygen unit for two days recovering from surgery

Otto, a seventeen pound miniature schnauzer, soon to be six years old, was brutally attached in the lot behind the Bucktown/Wicker Park Library on Feb. 28, at approximately 9:30 p.m. He was in ICU and in critical condition for five days. The attacking dog was "very large with long white hair and brown markings on its face. It was similar in size to a St. Bernard or Pyrenees, weighing 100 to 150 pounds," explained Otto's owner Amy Depwe.  Depwe needs help in finding the attacking dog and its owner. "My concern is not just for us but for others. The dog could attack another dog or a small child," Depwe stated.

Recovering at the vets

Depwe describes the couple as male and female Caucasians in their late forties or early fifties, each with a similar large well groomed dog with long white hair and brown facial markings. "The woman could not control the dog and was pulled to the ground as it ran toward Otto. Her dog took Otto in its mouth shaking it like a stuffed toy." The man with her stood with his dog as Depwe's dog walking neighbor, Gary Smith, grabbed the dog by the neck trying to swat Otto out of his mouth.

When Otto was freed, Depwe scooped him up, taking him home so she could get him to a veterinarian. Smith made sure she got inside her door before going back to the lot to retrieve his dogs that he had tied to a tree. The couple had left the scene without leaving contact information. Smith called the police but they were not able to locate the couple.

Amy Depwe and Randall Schwartz read get well cards to Otto at home

Requiring a neck to penis incision, Otto's surgery was to repair four lacerations to his diaphragm, more than twenty hernias, a hole in his kidney and removal of his spleen. In addition, there was damage to his stomach wall and forty skin lacerations.

"I am asking as a neighbor, dog lover, and concerned citizen for help locating this couple. I know most of my neighbors, but have never seen this couple or their dogs before. Perhaps they are new to the neighborhood, or do not live in my immediate area (Hoyne and Wilmot). If anyone has seen them and their two identical giant dogs, please email me or call 630.640.5500. I have been so distraught, that I wasn't able to get this information out until today. I would greatly appreciate my community's help," explained Depwe who is most appreciative of everyone's support and help since this incident.