When his property in southern California was sold, the owner packed up everything and left.
Everything but his pet.
And so a small, scared dog found herself roaming the neighborhood, living off scraps and whatever she could forage from a construction yard.
She also managed to get pregnant.
Someone found the compassion to build a makeshift den for the mother and her puppies – a plastic bin turned on its side, with a piece of wood holding the door open.
And that’s where Eldad Hagar and Lisa Chiarelli from Hope For Paws found her.
“It’s OK. It’s OK,” Hagar is heard cooing in a video posted to YouTube, while approaching the growling dog.
It turned out the dog had every reason to be less than welcoming. Local kids, according to Hope For Paws, had stolen all of her puppies, except for one. She would guard her last baby no matter what.
“It’s OK,” Hagar repeats.
But she was hungry. And so was her puppy. As she gobbled down a hamburger, rescuers were able to get a leash around her neck.
Slowly, patiently, her rescuers soothed the dog, her distrust gradually melting away.
And then?
She allowed herself to be touched.
Puppy, on the other hand, gave her trust a little more readily.
“It’s a baby girl,” Chiarelli declares in the video.
They named her Meadow.
And her mother? Zoe.
After about half an hour, Zoe and Meadow decided these humans were worth going with – and left behind their life on the streets forever.
This time, their trust wouldn’t be betrayed.
Mother and daughter are now in the care of Shelter Hope Pet Shop, a California-based charity that looks to match rescued animals with real homes – the kind of homes that never leave pets behind.
