When workers at a cemetery in Missouri saw a shadow moving through the graveyard one night, they weren’t scared. Recently, there had been a lot of visitors, and most of them walked on four legs.
The next day, when they got a better look, they saw that their guest was a small stray puppy. They called their friends at Stray Rescue of St. Louis because most of his hair was gone and his feet hurt too much to walk on.
The chief life-saving officer at SRSL, Donna Lochmann, told The Dodo that many lost dogs end up in the cemetery.
“They just get under the fence and decide that they like it because it’s quiet,” Lochmann said. “It’s a huge cemetery, so they have a lot of space to get away from people.”
But every stray dog needs a place to stay, so Lochmann and the people who work at the cemetery come up with a plan to save the dog right away. They spread out and looked everywhere in the graveyard for the puppy.
After looking for a while, one of the search team members heard a noise coming from a bush and found the puppy curled up under it.
Lochmann picked up the puppy and took him to the vet right away. There, the puppy’s skin condition and the wounds on his feet were treated. They gave him the name Kamper, which came from one of the tombstones in the cemetery where they found him.
When Kamper was finally feeling better, his caretakers at SRSL took him back to the cemetery so he could see the people who helped him.
“It was really emotional for everyone, especially for Kamper and the volunteer who called us,” Lochmann said.
As soon as Kamper saw the people who worked at the cemetery again, he got very excited. He ran straight at them and gave each of them a big thank-you kiss on the face.
And the people who worked there were just as happy to see him.
“The woman who called was so happy that we’d gotten him and that he was doing so well,” Lochmann said. “On our end, we certainly appreciated that she’d contacted us so that he could get some help.”
At the cemetery, Kamper said goodbye to his friends with a few tears and a lot of kisses. He went back to SRSL, but only for a short time.
Kamper was lucky that the shelter could find him a good foster home right away. Kamper gets new pajamas and medicated baths every day to help his skin heal. He also gets to play with his new dog siblings while he waits for a forever home.
“It’s so fun to watch him play and be happy, knowing that he’s not this scared, sick dog trying to survive on the streets anymore,” Lochmann said.
“Now he gets to just be a puppy.”
