Sadly noted with Poodle Bitch: The sad story of Lola

Poodle Bitch read with sadness and horror the story of a "former screenwriter" who allegedly punched a four-pound poodle bitch in the face, killing the poor dear.

Police say a former television screenwriter was arrested after punching his poodle in the face so hard that it died of a brain injury. ... His wife tells the newspaper that the dog's death was a "horrible accident."

Poodle Bitch wonders how one can "accidentally" punch a poodle in the face, let alone punch the poodle so hard that the creature dies as a result. The New York Post has more:

Sources said Shuttleworth, who has worked for Steven Spielberg and now reads scripts for $300 a pop, allegedly decked little Lola on May 29 because he was angry at the pup. He took the 5-year-old dog to a veterinarian, where her death raised suspicions. The hospital called the ASPCA, which took Lola’s remains for a necropsy. “Lola sustained a traumatic brain injury secondary to the application of blunt force to the right side of her head at the hands of the suspect, her owner,” said ASPCA spokesman Joseph Pentangelo.

Poodle Bitch believes quite strongly in the proposition that all creatures, human or canine, are "innocent until proven guilty." Nonetheless, she admits to having some difficulty in not holding this "human" in abject contempt. She hopes against hope that in fact the entire incident was a "horrible accident;" that the poor little five year-old poodle bitch Lola was not brutalized by her human companion, the companion for whom she had nothing but unconditional love, whose smile made her feel alive, whose voice calling her name made her heart race, whose very presence was a comfort during thunderstorms, whose lap was a safe place for sharing time and space together. The alternative is just too sad. Poodle Bitch's heart aches.