A kind Samaritan in Missouri decided to intervene after seeing a dog for several days in a row lying on a trash heap. He placed a call to Stray Rescue of St. Louis (SRSL), and animal-rescue volunteers quickly arrived to help.
Donna Lochmann, who is in charge of saving lives at SRSL, saw the puppy first.
“When we got there, she was still rummaging through the trash because she was hungry, and we could see that she was skinny,” Lochmann told The Dodo.
At first, the dog didn’t see Lochmann, but when she did, she ran behind the trash can to hide.
Lochmann knew that she had to earn the pup’s trust before she could save her. So, she pulled out some treats because she thought the dog was hungry.
“She was very receptive to the sausages,” Lochmann said. “But when I knelt down and offered one to her, she went past the food and came right up to me.”
Instead of eating the food that was given to her, the sweet dog got as close as she could to the person who saved her and looked into her eyes.
“It was as if she was saying, ‘Are you here to help me?’” Lochmann said.
After gaining the dog’s trust, Lochmann put a leash around her neck and walked her to the car.
You can watch the rescue here:
The dog, which Lochmann named Little Toes, started winning over the hearts of everyone who worked at the shelter as soon as they got there.
“She was so sweet with everybody in the clinic,” Lochmann said. “She was pretty much hugging up on everybody.”
Little Toes was only at the shelter for a day and a half before she went to live with a foster family. But in that short time, she spread as much love as she could.
Little Toes spends her days now loving on her new foster parents and her new dog brother or sister. Now that she is in a safe and loving temporary home, her sweet personality is coming out more and more every day.
Even though her SRSL friends miss her hugs, they are glad that Little Toes will never be hungry again.
