Seeing a dog suffering on the streets is always heartbreaking, but even worse is when people do nothing to help. For many stray dogs, survival is a daily struggle, where even finding food can be a challenge.
In this case, a dog was left stranded on a busy highway in Colorado with no one offering to help.
Alone And Fighting To Survive
When the Soul Dog Rescue team first spotted a lone dog on the side of a Colorado highway, they immediately recognized how difficult the rescue would be.
The dog was scared and distrustful, so the team knew they would need a strategy to reach her.
As they explained in a Facebook post: “She did not want anything to do with us, nor did we have a trap, which would have made life easier, but she needed help and we weren’t leaving without her.”
The dog, later named Joss, was in very poor health, suffering from a severe tapeworm infection. While figuring out how to approach her, the team noticed a nearby corn vendor.
They asked the vendor about the dog’s condition and were shocked to learn that she had been living there for weeks. He had been feeding her corn, which seemed to be the only reason she survived at all.
In the rescue video, Joss is shown just moments before she was saved.
Although she hesitated at first, her hunger ultimately won over, and she allowed herself to be rescued.
Riggs Wirth shared with The Dodo: “She did not want to come with us and did not seem happy to be caught.”
From Fear To Comfort
At first, Joss did not show much joy or relief at being rescued. However, after receiving consistent food, safety, and comfort, her outlook began to change.
Wirth explained: “She was always, always, always hungry. The first week, I had to limit her food because she would just eat until she would explode.”
Wirth took Joss into her home until she was ready for adoption. It was clear that Joss had never lived indoors before, and it took some time for her to adjust.
Wirth said, “By the end of the two weeks, she wanted to be everywhere with us, just following us around the house.”
“Whenever I turned around, she was sitting right there, watching me, just happy to stay close and be near her people.”
Just a few weeks later, Joss found her forever home in Colorado.
Her new family renamed her Coco, and it was clear that they were meant to be together. Watching her journey from fear to trust was truly heartwarming.