We may never know what happened in Stewie’s life to make him so terrified, but it’s safe to say that he was treated badly and never experienced human love.
When residents saw him running on the highway, their first instinct was to try to save him, but Stewie refused to be captured.
At first, the good people mistook his overwhelming fear for illness.
Realizing that they wouldn’t be able to rescue Stewie on their own, the residents reached out to Orange County Animal Services, a shelter located in Orlando, Florida.
Stewie Is Brought To Shelter
The team responded to the call and dashed to the scene. Once they saw how terrified the pup was, the rescuers felt devastated.
Rescuing Stewie was extremely challenging, but eventually, the rescue team managed to lure him into the humane trap.
The rescuers brought Stewie to the shelter. He was estimated to be just a year old.
Getting used to life in a kennel was terrifying for Stewie.
Everything scared him and the never-ending shelter noise made him retreat to the corner of his kennel where he crouched and tried to hide from the world.
When the staff tried to put a leash over his neck so that they could take him for a walk, Stewie panicked. He lay on the ground, trying to escape the leash.
The patient staff tried with a harness, but that didn’t work either.
“[He] was willing to self-injure to get away,” Savanna Palmer, lead behaviorist at Orange County Animal Services, told The Dodo.
It was clear that he didn’t interact much with humans. He was almost feral.
The shelter members tried to figure out how to help Stewie come out of his shell and connect with him until one day he did something surprising.
He extended his paw and placed it on a staff member’s arm, holding on tight. The gentle human touch made Stewie calm down and gave him the courage to start walking on his back legs.
“If the staff member dropped his paws, Stewie would go right back to panicking and bucking. The moment he was held hand to paw, Stewie felt more comfortable walking,” Palmer added.
The staff was overjoyed to see the pup showing bravery and they considered it adorable.
Hoping To Get A Second Chance
Palmer, both a staff member and behaviorist, always does her best to understand what each animal needs in order to get adapted to the loud shelter environment.
When Stewie grabbed the shelter member’s hand, the staff saw it as his way of asking for guidance and reassurance that everything would be alright.
The timid pup has made steady progress since arriving at the shelter in early August 2025. He became more trusting of the people and he goes on walks while holding hands.
Thanks to his shelter friends’ encouragement and exercises that boost confidence, Stewie made progress day after day.
In order to thrive and become a happy pup, Stewie needed to leave the shelter and decompress in a loving foster home.
Thankfully, once a wonderful foster parent stepped in, Furever Bully Love Rescue in Florida, pulled the pup from the shelter.
Stewie’s foster family promised to be patient with him and help him come out of his shell.
I’m sure that the pup will make huge progress in his foster home and that he will find his humans who will love him to the moon and back.