Emmy, a pit bull mix, was left outside and alone last week as temperatures plunged below freezing. When her family abandoned her in Ecorse, Michigan, during a blizzard, the scared senior dog had no choice but to curl up in a ball for warmth and trust that someone would find her.
Fortunately, rescuers spotted Emmy just as a light layer of snow fell on her fur.
“She’d been outside for a day and a half in the bad weather,” P.O.E.T. Animal Rescue board member Lauren Boesen told The Dodo. “It was probably two degrees Fahrenheit out there with 30 mph winds.”
Emmy is currently in the care of P.O.E.T. Animal Rescue, but her rescue was a collective effort with multiple agencies banding together to pick her up from her cold location outside and take her to a vet who could provide her with the medical attention she required.
Friends of River Rouge Animal Shelter was the first to discover about Emmy and swiftly put out a need for support on social media. After viewing the post, the director of a local spay and neuter clinic, The PAWS Clinic, offered to drive the dog to the vet. She took Emmy to Pet Care Clinic Lincoln Park, where a veterinarian team checked her extensively.
“She was severely malnourished,” claimed Boesen. “Everyone assumed she wasn’t going to make it.”
Emmy was underweight, flea-infested, and had pressure sores on both her elbows and knees. Her age was evaluated by the vet specialists to be roughly 8 or 9 years old.
“She was presumably imprisoned in a cage for a very long time,” Boesen continued. “She clearly hasn’t had a great past.”
They realized Emmy needed to go to an emergency vet hospital straight away after getting a closer look. That’s when her P.O.E.T. Animal Rescue pals came in.
“A handful of our board members stopped everything to pick her up from the vet and drive her to the emergency clinic,” said Boesen. “She was stated to be curled up in a ball in the back of the automobile.”
Emmy was in the hands of an emergency vet team just a few hours after being rescued from an icy roadway. Their purpose was to elevate her body temperature because she was still cold and to heal her wounds.
The emergency vet crew had fallen in love with Emmy within minutes.
“They said she just lit up and that she was the sweetest girl, and that she always greeted everyone who came in to care for her by wagging her tail,” Boesen continued.
Emmy’s temperature had controlled by Saturday morning, and she was ready to be put in a foster family. When Boesen arrived to pick her up, she was amazed by how much the pup’s personality had blossomed in just 24 hours.
“She came out to the lobby waving her tail,” Boesen continued. “She greeted us before crying for other people in the foyer to stroke her.”
Boesen and Emmy dropped by P.O.E.T. Animal Rescue before traveling to her foster home, where she instantly made herself at home.
“When I carried her to our shelter, one of the first things she did was crawl onto the sofa,” Boesen recounted. “I was taken aback.”
Boesen could see Emmy was ready for a loving home, and a seasoned foster family was anxious to welcome her into theirs.
Despite the fact that her foster home is simply temporary, Emmy is already receiving the attention she has always deserved. The surviving pup was cuddling beneath a Christmas tree with her foster dog siblings two days after her rescue, wearing matching holiday pajamas.
Emmy will be ready for foster care again in a few weeks, and Boesen hopes that her next family will be the one she remains in permanently.
“She’s definitely the loveliest girl,” Boesen remarked. “She is deserving of the entire universe.”