No food or water was left for this poor dog; she was just dumped on the street on a chilly winter’s night.
Instead of looking for food or trying to find shelter, Camilla refused to leave her blanket in the hope that her family would return.
But sadly they didn’t.
When Marina Tarashevska, co-founder of the animal rights organization Dallas DogRRR decided to go for walk around her neighborhood on New Year’s Day she found Camilla clinging to her blanket.
“It was really cold and rainy, and the dog was lying on her blanket — and she wouldn’t leave it,” Patti Dawson, executive director of Dallas DogRRR, told The Dodo.
“I think she was still thinking her family would come back. She was in that stage of, ‘I’ll just wait here. This is familiar,’” she added.
Marina talked to concerned neighbors who confirmed that the dog had been abandoned.
She then decided to rescue the dog, a task easier said than done.
“Anytime Marina got close to that blanket, she would run off,” Patti said.
Then Marina had an idea; each time the dog ran off, she pulled the blanket down the alleyway toward her own house.
Marina did this for an hour until the blanket and the dog arrived at her backyard. She was then able to grab hold of the dog and get her into the safety of a kennel.
The dog, now named Camilla, was terrified.
“She basically was curled up into a ball in the back of the crate,” Patti said. “You could touch her, but she was frozen in fear. Wouldn’t make eye contact, kept her head down. If you got close to her, she would put her head into the back of the kennel, like, ‘Don’t look at me, don’t make eye contact with me, don’t touch me. Stay away.’”
Fresh wounds were spotted on her neck and Camilla was taken to the vet who said it could have been from a fight with another dog,
She was treated not just for her physical wounds but also her emotional ones too.
According to Patti, Camilla is making great progress and now feels safer with people.
“She’s doing great. Her personality is slowly coming out, and she’s starting to trust,” Patti told The Dodo.
Camilla now lives in a foster home and is enjoying lots of love and attention until a forever home can be found for her.
Such an incredibly sad story. I can’t understand why anyone could dump their family dog on the street like that, as if it was a piece of trash.
Please share to highlight the need for a new loving home for Camilla and to pay tribute to the animal heroes who saved her.