Animals
An Abandoned Pup Is Found On The Highway With An Agonizing Note
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When we go to an event with a lot of strangers, they give us a nametag that says “Hello! I’m _____.”
Dogs wear medical and ID tags so that anyone who finds them will know how to help them.
That jingle-jangle usually means a dog is loved and cared about and would be missed.
That’s not always the case, though…
When an object darted out in the snow-covered path of Payden Trujillo’s car she was able to brake just in time to avoid it.
She wasn’t sure what she had missed, but she knew it was something alive and it was worth taking the risk of braking on the icy Utah roads.
When she got out of the car to investigate, she was met by a young, skinny, cold and terrified young dog.
It broke Payden’s heart to think of the dog running around so scared in the dark and cold.
She didn’t have a flashlight with her to read the dog’s tag, but she was relieved to see that it was wearing one. She would be able to get the dog back to his home now!
But when she got the dog to the safety of her dad’s house, her heart broke even more when she read the note scrawled across the front and back of the tag:
“My name is Lilly if you found me please keep me. My family can’t and I need love.”
She couldn’t imagine anyone dropping a dog alone on a dark, snowy night beside the road. It just seemed too cruel!
The very thought of driving away and leaving a dog that trusted you running after you, helplessly, made Peydon angry. And her sister added:
“As soon as we saw it, we knew nobody was out there looking for her,” Mercedes Trujillo, Payden’s sister, told The Dodo.
“There are quite a few no-kill shelters around that the owners could have dropped her off to, but instead they just left her.
We couldn’t believe someone would throw out a dog like that.”
After seeing the tags on Lilly, Mercedez decided that the previous owners were right on one count: Lilly needed love. And she had plenty to give.
She might not have been physically abused, no one will ever know.
But certainly, no one had tried to socialize her enough to make her comfortable with new situations, etc. And she was in woeful condition, too.
“She was really skinny and had frostbite on her paws, so she had to have been out there for some while,” Mercedes said.
“I wasn’t sure if she was even potty-trained because whenever she would eat or drink it went right through her.”
After a few weeks with Mercedes, Lilly was starting to look and feel better.
But her problems weren’t over yet.
“I was staying with family friends who finally said they couldn’t have her stay there anymore,” Mercedes said.
“Her separation anxiety was really bad at first, so we just kind of kept friend-hopping for a place to stay because nobody really wanted her in their house.”
Despite the hardship, Mercedes wasn’t going to give up on Lilly again. If Lilly had to go, so did she; she’d never leave Lilly behind!
It has now been two years since the happy pooch came into Mercedes’ life, and no one would recognize the shivering, skinny dog cowering in Payden’s headlights!
Best of all, now that they’re all settled in, she got a brand new baby sister. 1-year-old Ayla, a greyhound mix adopted from The Barking Lot Rescue.
“Lilly really likes having a little sister,” Mercedes said. “They have a ton of fun playing together.”
And best of all, the transformation appears to be complete:
“Lilly is a complete 180 from the scared puppy she was two years ago,” Mercedes said.
“Now, all the people who didn’t want her in their houses are amazed at who she’s grown into. She’s such a good dog.
But I honestly don’t feel like it took very much to get there — just a little time.”
A little time. And a whole lot of love from someone with a big heart and the knowledge of what pet ownership is all about!
You can stay up to date with Lilly’s adventures by following her on Instagram.
Source: The Dodo
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