For days on end, this little white puppy sat in a ditch, abandoned and confused, trying to make sense of why she was left all alone.
She was frightened, starving, and hurting—clinging to fading hope with each passing moment.
“Why did you get me if you weren’t going to love me? Why am I hungry? Why am I in a ditch? Why is everything hurting… Why?”
Questions with no answers. But none of that matters now.
Because she decided to trust one last kind voice—and that leap of faith changed everything.
A Fragile Pup Calls For Help
While walking along a road in North Carolina one afternoon, Margaret Hamilton, the founder of Ruby and Laurel Animal Rescue, Inc., noticed something barely visible: a tiny white head peeking from a ditch.
She stopped in her tracks.
As she gently crouched down, a wave of terrible odor from the puppy’s mangey, infected skin struck her. What she saw next was heartbreaking.
This poor soul had clearly been suffering, and by some stroke of fate, it was a rescuer who found her.
“This baby has seen the worst of humans, but still belly crawled out of the ditch and into my arms. She goes in first thing tomorrow for medical treatment and vaccines,” Margaret shared on TikTok.
Though the puppy was weak and in pain, she found the strength to crawl toward compassion—and she melted into Margaret’s embrace as if she finally knew she was safe.
Back home for the night, Margaret trimmed her nails and gave her a soothing medicated bath. Her skin was raw and painful, burned from the sun and riddled with mange.
Steps Toward Healing
The next morning, Margaret took the puppy to the vet for a full examination. Thankfully, she tested negative for heartworm. But despite being around three years old, she was so small and frail that she still looked like a pup.
Her battered condition told the story of a very hard life.
They named her Slurpee.
In just a couple of days, her transformation began. Her spirit brightened, her tail wagged more, and she slowly started acting like the happy, playful dog she was always meant to be.
“Slurpee is feeling better by the day and we are already seeing improvements on her skin condition. Demodectic mange looks scary but is not contagious,” Margaret updated.
Now, Slurpee is finally safe and on her way to recovery. In a few more weeks, she’ll be even healthier—and hopefully, the painful memory of the ditch she was abandoned in will fade into the past.
Sweet girl, your better days are just beginning.
If you’d like to support Slurpee and the team that saved her, you can donate to their GoFundMe and help give more dogs a second chance at life.