Lisa’s heart warming story of a dog’s rescue continues…
“The following weekend I returned. Again a 45-minute drive across the county. The food was gone, but there was no way to determine if she or another wild animal had eaten it. Knowing her comfort with the abandoned house, I decided to begin feeding her there. At that point, I reasoned that at least I would know that she wouldn’t starve, and that hopefully, foraging less would bring a measure of safety.
My cry for help went out over e-mail! After two weeks I knew I could not give up on this dog, but needed guidance. I didn’t know what to do next! A woman I only know as Debbie, from Massachusetts, responded with a list of instructions.
First, to give the dog a name to begin recognizing- which became “Sweetie”. (My heart strings had already been tugged.) Next, to put down a soft blanket for her to lie on, which will also tell me that she’d been there. Third, to leave something with the scent of her puppies with it -for her, it was a soft stuffed toy with the puppies’ scent. And last, my own additions: I boarded up the bedroom doors, secured the accessible windows, swept and cleaned the room in the abandoned house as much as possible, making it more secure and a warmer place for “Sweetie”, a dog I still had not seen but was becoming connected to.
Saturday, April 3. Three weeks. It took Sweetie another week to feel comfortable enough to stay in the newly cleaned and boarded up room, but finally I could see that she was eating the food, and that she had left some of her black hairs on the white blanket. Grateful that she had returned to the house, I filled the bowls with fresh food and water, and began a habit of walking near the woods edge calling her by her name, hoping she could hear, and could begin to trust my voice and the sound of her name. The next day, Sunday, April 4, Sweetie had already come, had eaten her food and had left the house. I walked again towards the woods to find her sitting in the warm sun-my first sighting of her. As I neared her, calling her name, she calmly stood up in the brush, then ran into the woods. At last, however, I had seen her and I knew she had seen me.”
To be continued!
Leave a Reply