Vacaville Woman Searches For Her Puppy's Cruel Dognapper

VACAVILLE (CBS SF) -- Every time Debra Ferrara thinks of her beloved puppy Rex, the hole in her heart grow just a little bit bigger.

Rex escaped from her backyard recently while Ferrara was away attending a funeral. As she frantically searched for the puppy, Ferrera got word that Rex had been picked up by a blue Prius as he ran through her neighborhood.

Before the car could be stopped, it sped away.

Ferrera continued searching, but word soon came that someone in the Prius had tossed Rex onto eastbound Highway 80 with his back legs bound together. Before a Good Samaritan could rescue him, he was fatally stuck by a vehicle.

"I absolutely loved him dearly and I miss him so much," the Vacaville woman said. "It's just left a real hole in my life...He was my little companion all the time. He rode on the console on the car. We have taken a few trips to Idaho and he rides along."

Ferrara said she would have taken Rex with her to the funeral, but it was simply too hot out to leave him in the car.

"I said I'm sorry Rex, but you've gotta stay home," she said.

And Ferrara still is wrestling with how someone could dognap Rex and then toss him on a freeway.

"How could you do such a thing, an evil vile thing?" she said.

Susan Barbarick, who runs an animal rescue named 'Pause 4 Paws' in Vacaville, is offer a reward for any information about the Prius or its driver.

"It can't bring Rex back to Deb, but we hope at least to find those responsible and bring them to justice," she said.

As for Ferrara, she's not mincing words.

"I hope he (the dognapper) rots in hell, I hope he rots in hell," she said.