Danielle Stefanovski of Detroit, Michigan, walked past a dilapidated building when a black dog caught her sight. She saw that it was alone so she tried to call the dog’s attention, but she failed.
She doesn’t know why but the pull towards the dog was quite strong, and Danielle just could not let her go. So, she followed the dog inside the blighted home and tried to convince it to come to her.
“I was trying to get her to come close to me and she was very scared,” shared Danielle in an interview with WXYZ TV.
The dog was very wary of Danielle that she could not get near 20 feet from the female dog. Obviously, the dog was determined to stay in the rundown home, but Danielle does not know why.
Concerned about the dog’s condition, Danielle continued her search around the house and was surprised at what she found on the porch. There were two snuggly puppies sunbathing on it, and for Danielle, it was the cutest thing.
She knew right away that this was the reason why the female dog she saw earlier could not leave the building. She started to approach the puppies but they ran inside the house.
She continued on her search and decided to enter the dilapidated building to look for the puppies. The woman saw the condition inside and found that part of the floor was missing and there was garbage everywhere. Clearly, it was not a fitting place for a family of dogs to stay in.
Moments later, she laid her eyes on the puppies she was looking for. And as she scanned her eyes in the room, she also found something that made her heart sink. A few meters from the two puppies, their siblings who passed away were lying next to each other.
“I turned around to search the rest of the house and unfortunately, I found two dead puppies on the floor which was very startling and really sad.”
Danielle’s heart was broken at the discovery and knew exactly what had to be done. She took the living puppies and brought them home. Danielle named one of the pups Lucy and the other, Owen.
“We didn’t want to leave them there. We definitely wanted to get them to the vets and taken care of.”
Although Danielle already got the two puppies safe and secured, she was still intent on rescuing the dogs’ mother. However, she was too hard to catch. She didn’t want to leave her deceased pups in the blighted home.
She was very protective of her puppies, even the ones who already passed. No matter what the rescuers did to convince her, mama dog did not budge and even refused the food offered to her just to stay near her pups.
According to the American Kennel Club, Barbara J. King wrote an article in the May 2017 edition of Scientific American that revealed how dogs experience behavioral changes after the death of a fellow pup.
“After a dog dies, another dog in the household may show social withdrawal,” says King. “He may fail to eat or drink, he may search for his lost companion or exhibit vocalizations that show he is stressed.”
The mama dog was still fighting to stay with her dead pups until finally, Mike Diesel of Detroit Youth and Dog Rescue, along with Police Officer Laurie Briggs, set up a trap that ultimately caught the mama dog in less than 20 minutes. The only problem was, the rescuers did not know where her live puppies were.
The mama dog, who they now call Princess, was left with no puppies, but that was only for a very short time. Through the help of social media, the rescuers connected with Danielle, and soon enough, Princess and her puppies were reunited.
Three of the puppies died and they were given a proper burial. Meanwhile, Princess, Lucy, and Owen have been moved to foster care and are now happily together as a family. They had health concerns due to their living condition back in the rundown home but after recovering, they were ready to be adopted.
Know more about this bittersweet story by watching the video below.
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