Fate can hang in the balance anywhere, even in the middle of the northbound lane of Route 218 in Alna.

That’s where an old, mix-breed female dog was standing the night of May 21, right in the path of Joe Mitkus, One of about 700 people who live in Alna, he was driving home from work in Edgecomb when he saw her up ahead.

“So of course I stopped,” he said.

She wasn’t budging.

When the mostly black canine, gray of muzzle, finally did move, she went into the southbound lane.

Then another vehicle appeared, traveling south. It looked like a sport utility vehicle, and it was cooking right along, said Mitkus, who has served four tours in the Army, one in Kuwait and three in Iraq.

“I was flashing my lights, honking my horn, doing everything I could to get them to slow down. And she didn’t move,” he said of the dog.

The SUV didn’t stop. When it hit the dog, the vehicle slowed down a little, then sped off.

“I was upset that they didn’t stop after,” Mitkus said.

But Teresa Simpson of Whitefield did. She was on her way home from visiting her mother in Wiscasset. A couple of months earlier, Simpson had lost one of her dogs to a hit-and-run.

Together, she and Mitkus protected the stray from further injury. They placed one vehicle in front of her and the other behind her at the road’s shoulder where she had managed to crawl. While waiting for a local animal control officer they had called for, the two kept vigil, comforting the dog with their voices.

“She listened to us. I was telling her it was OK,” Simpson said. “She was howling but she never tried to bite anybody. She was the sweetest little dog.”

Veterinarian Tammy Doughty made a late-night trip to her Woodbrook Animal Clinic in Wiscasset and immediately began the dog’s care.

“She’s stable right now,” Doughty said two days later, on May 23, as the patient looked up from a large dog bed.

She’s over 10 years old and looks like a hound-lab mix, Doughty said.

The dog’s pelvis is fractured and will need eight weeks’ rest and care to heal, Lincoln County Animal Shelter’s office manager Carrie Koskela said. If no owner is found, when she’s well enough, she would go to the Edgecomb shelter or into a foster home, Koskela said.

The shelter hasn’t named her yet, in case her owner turns up, Koskela said.

Simpson has gone door-to-door in the area where the dog appeared, but had no luck finding an owner or anyone who knew where she came from.

The shelter has begun receiving donations toward the dog’s medical costs. They can be phoned in, at 207-882-9677, or dropped off. The shelter at 27 Atlantic Highway in Edgecomb is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturdays.

The Alna Store, just south of where the dog was struck on Route 218, has set up a donation canister.

Store co-owner Amy Preston said May 23 she’s been getting call after call from people asking about the dog and wanting to help.

Besides the pelvis injury, Doughty said she is concerned about other medical issues that she would like to discuss with the dog’s owner, if located.

As of Tuesday afternoon, May 28, the dog was making progress, Koskela said. Plans called for her to be moved to the shelter later this week, to continue her recuperation.

So far, about $200 had been raised toward her medical costs, not including whatever has gone into the canister at the Alna Store and another one at the Animal House in Damariscotta, Koskela said.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com