Another Update: Guess Gizmo has a twin! :P
---
Eric Wang thought there was something familiar about the little photograph of a Yorkshire terrier inside the Sing Tao Daily, a Chinese-language newspaper he was reading on the train into New York City.
Like others across the country, Wang, a computer network engineer for a financial company, was engrossed by a story about the horrid death of a Nashville dog, Gizmo, who police said was killed when a Nashville man kicked him like a football.
Then Wang realized that the dog in the picture wasn't Gizmo. It was his own.
According to Wang, the photograph published in The Tennessean's print and online editions is actually that of GiGi, a Yorkshire terrier who Wang said was euthanized last year at age 19.
The Edison, N.J., man has a photo of GiGi posted on an Internet site that he runs.
News outlets around the world have run the story of Gizmo in recent days, along with the purported Gizmo picture. It has gained national attention and sympathy for the dog and its owners.
But as it turns out, Gizmo's owners, Jelani Lewis, 29, and Jessica McKenzie, 27, of Nashville, provided an incorrect photograph to The Tennessean to publish with the newspaper's coverage of Gizmo's death.
The photo was one of GiGi, which they had downloaded from the Internet for their collection of dog photos, they said.
Lewis yesterday said he and Mc-Kenzie had thought it was a photo of Gizmo. They could not provide a photo of Gizmo but said they would continue looking for one.
''We are sorry,'' Lewis said. ''When you see pictures of Gizmo, you will see that our dogs are twins.''
Wang said yesterday that he wasn't upset about the mix-up, and actually thought it was ''cool'' that a picture of his former companion had gained national, and even international, exposure.
He said he grew up with GiGi, who once belonged to his aunt. He said he talked with Lewis yesterday by telephone and that Lewis was apologetic.
Wang also said he was concerned by the news of what happened to Gizmo. He couldn't grasp why the Nashville couple's dog died the way it did.
Chad Daniel Crawford, 23, is charged with animal cruelty and felony vandalism. Crawford has re-mained free after posting $25,000 bail shortly after his arrest.
In a brief telephone interview with The Tennessean earlier this week, Crawford said the charges against him were not true and that he would contact an attorney. Attempts to reach him since then have not been successful.
''It's kind of outrageous,'' Wang said yesterday when reached at his New Jersey home.
''It wasn't like it was a stray dog. It was a neighbor's dog. Why would you do that?''
http://www.tennessean.com/local/arch...nt_ID=49658591