Owners of Carolina the dog, who was badly burned in an apartment fire, said she is on her road to recovery.
The five-year-old boxer breed, was trapped in a first floor apartment in the Brentwood Downs complex when a fire started on the third floor.
She was in a cage and unable to escape until a firefighter breached the door and let her free.
Carolina suffered burns to all of her feet, part of her left side and part of her face. A group of neighbors carried the dog to the parking lot where her owner, Brett Chatham took the dog to Nashville Veterinary Specialists.
Brett's wife, Casey Chatham, also wasn't home at the time the fire started, but went to the animal hospital as soon as she heard what happened.
"Yesterday, [Carolina] was more awake when she was in here and she just scooted closer and closer to the wall trying to get to us," said Chatham.
Chatham said Carolina was in great pain initially. Thursday morning, the dog was doing better and healing in a cage. Vets told the couple Carolina would likely have to stay at the animal hospital for four to five days.
The Chathams lost everything in the fire. All of their material possessions were destroyed in the fire except for some glass plates firefighters recovered. Though, they haven't been allowed back into the apartment to see if anything else survived.
Brett is an English teacher at Franklin High School. He had to leave school to come pick up his dog.
The couple started a GoFundMe page to raise money for Carolina's medical bills.
"I was hesitant to talk to you yesterday, but we thought we were going to have to face a really hard decision because of the vet bill," Chatham said. "Nobody ever wants to be in that situation. But, on top of everything else, it has made such a difference that the GoFundMe just completely took that worry away from us."
As of Thursday night, it's raised early $10,000 for medical bills. Some of Brett's students even gave to the cause.
"I could see that my kids were like donating money, 5, 10, 20 dollars at a time. I knew friends, family and coworkers would help out. But I was really touched that my students were helping out too," he said. "It would be really hard to fail someone this year."
Carolina is still at risk of infection in some of her wounds. Vets told the couple she may need surgery if that happens.
