Tale of stray dog
Dear Editor: I am writing about the article written by Christine Haines in the July 18 edition, “Stray Dog corralled in Brownsville.”
This pretty little dog, that we had been calling Little Lady, had been in the Albany area for about four weeks prior to being spotted and caught in the Brownsville area.
Our area is notorious for drop-offs of all sorts, since it is so sparsely populated. All of my pets are adopted drop-offs. The latest is a kitten that I’ve had for two weeks. She was small when abandoned, quite unable to fend for herself.
When we first spotted Little Lady, she was not injured. She was scared and was not approachable; however, many of us tried.
Little Lady would hide behind the guide rails along the road between my house and my sister’s house, and would run if approached. In the mornings before I would leave for work, I always take some treats to my dog, Lucky, and I would slowly drive up and down the road and throw some treats out to Little Lady. I would watch her in my rear-view mirror and see her emerge from the guide rails to get her morning treats.
My niece had taken a bowl of food and water, and placed it near the guide rails where she would stay. She noticed that she looked like she had had pups, however, we have not located any.
After about a week, we suspect that she must have been hit by a passing motorist and sustained the injury to her leg.
One Sunday morning when my sister and I were returning from grocery shopping, Little Lady was lying in the middle of my field. That’s when we noticed she was limping. I took some food and water to her. She was very weak but tried to run. I spoke as softly to her as I could, slowly approaching her. I put the dog food and water as near to her as I could without spooking her away, and she cautiously ate and drank, but only after I backed a few yards away from her. She was whimpering as she ate. I wish I could have done more, but knew that if I tried to get closer, she would run and possibly do more damage to her injured leg.
We did not see her everyday, maybe every other day. Every time we saw her, we would take food and water to her, and every time she would run away. We could never catch her.
The last that we had seen her was on Saturday, July 13th. She was heading towards Redstone Creek through the woods, near the Albany Tunnel (Jefferson Township side).
Little Lady has the most beautiful eyes, light/medium brown and so expressive, so sad. I am glad to know that she has been caught and will hopefully be adopted to a loving family and home.
I also hope that all of the careless people who drop off animals thinking that someone else will care for them will realize that the local neighbors cannot always do what we would like to for these animals. Sometimes they get hurt or even killed by passing motorists or other prey.
Little Lady was one of the “lucky” ones, if you call being abandoned and maimed and left to starve to death “lucky.” Little Lady has found some good Samaritans who care for God’s creatures. God only knows what has happened to her puppies. May God bless and keep them in his care.
Thank you Good Samaritans.
Mary Forsyth
Fayette City