Fox the puppy was found wandering the streets of Los Angeles, all alone and terrified. When a woman spotted him scurrying along one night — and then saw him again the following night — she decided she had to do something.
Hope for Paws got the call and immediately headed over to try and rescue Fox. It was around 9:30 p.m. so the streets were fairly dark, but the rescuers were still able to locate Fox pretty quickly. He was cowering in some bushes near where he’d first been seen.
They quickly fenced in the area around the bushes, pulled out a cheeseburger and began to try and lure the tiny, scared puppy out of hiding.
“Once he smelled the food, his little tail started wagging, and in less than 10 minutes we were out of there,” Eldad Hagar, founder of Hope for Paws, told The Dodo.
Little Fox was hesitant but very hungry, and as soon as he was in the arms of his rescuers, he began to relax immediately, and seemed to know he was finally safe.
As soon as Fox was safely off the streets, Hagar scanned him for a microchip — and discovered that he had a family out there somewhere.
“When we called the owner, she told us that he lives in her backyard and that he probably escaped,” Hagar said. “She continued to tell us that she got him as a gift she didn’t even want, and told us, ‘Just dump him at the shelter.’ We asked if she would be willing to surrender him to us and transfer the microchip information to us, and she agreed.”
As it often happens when animals are given as gifts, Fox’s mom was not prepared for him and didn’t have the time or energy to devote to him, which is probably how he ran away unnoticed. Giving any sort of animal as a gift is generally a bad idea unless the recipient knows about it and is prepared for their new pet. Surprising someone with a pet, unfortunately, often leads to lots of unwanted animals ending up at shelters.
Luckily, little Fox was found by the right people. He was a little dehydrated from living on the streets without access to water, but other than that, was in pretty good shape.
After getting checked out and cleaned up, Fox was able to head off to his foster home, where he has lots of room to run around, dog siblings to play with …
… and even a pig sibling, too.
“Fox is the happiest little puppy,” Hagar said.