After a family was evicted from their apartment, the property manager heard faint cries coming from the empty unit. The manager went in to investigate — and found a tiny dog tied up under the bathroom sink, injured and in desperate need of help.
Instead of taking the dog, later named Autumn, with them, the family had decided to leave her tied up under the sink with nothing but a bowl of Raisin Bran. The poor dog was there all alone for a week before someone found her, and she was in extreme pain from a horrific injury on her neck caused from being tied up. The property manager knew the little dog needed some extremely dedicated people to help her, and made a post on Facebook pleading for someone to take her. Luckily, Kate’s Rescue for Animals found out about her, and immediately agreed to take her in.
After driving out to get her, a volunteer with the rescue drove Autumn straight to Monte Vista Small Animal Hospital, where the staff was anxiously waiting for her. They carefully cut her collar off, and after examining her injuries, determined that they would need to perform surgery on the open wound on her neck in order to save her life.
Even though the family had only left Autumn alone for a week, the vet said that, based on her injury, it was very likely that she had been tied up for much, much longer than that.
Autumn was very quiet when she first arrived at the vet, and in addition to her injury, she was also extremely emaciated and dehydrated. Despite all she’d been through, though, she was the sweetest little dog from the very beginning, and wanted nothing more than to be held by all her new friends.
“She is super sweet, and loves to be held, because she’s been neglected for so long,” Kim Dunn, a volunteer with Kate’s Rescue for Animals, told The Dodo.
Miraculously, little Autumn pulled through the surgery and seemed to be feeling so much better just hours later, much to the staff’s surprise and delight. She did end up spiking a fever a day or so later, but it was quickly resolved, and Autumn is now safely resting and recovering with her foster mom Christine Schamber.
While Autumn can’t be around other dogs yet because she’s still recovering, she’s loving every moment of being in her loving foster home, and her family can’t wait to introduce her to all her foster siblings very soon. You would never know how much Autumn has been through based on her shining personality, and she’ll no doubt make the best dog for one very lucky family once she’s finally ready to go off and find her forever home.
“She’s just a happy little girl,” Dunn said. “She loves her toy giraffe.”
If Autumn had been left tied up under that sink for much longer, she probably wouldn’t have made it. Now, she’s getting a second chance, thanks to the people who were kind enough to take her in and refused to give up on her.