Some may say that abandoning a poor animal is completely out of control. After hearing this heartbreaking story, I can only agree with this sentiment. On a beautiful sunny day in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, a woman walked out onto her porch, completely unaware of the terrifying scene that was about to happen to her.
There was a cardboard box on his balcony, someone must have dropped it. On closer inspection, she unbelievably discovered a white, fluffy dog inside.
The poor dog was in a terrible condition, motionless and worst of all, he looked dead.
Lifeless dog in a box
Panicked and unsure of what to do, the woman immediately called her daughter, Janine Guido, the founder of Speranza Animal Rescue in Pennsylvania.
“My phone rang mid morning. It was my Mom who never calls, we just always communicate by text. So I knew something wasn’t right. When I answered my suspicion was confirmed,” Janine wrote in a social media post.
On the other end of the phone was her mom, completely frantic and crying about a ‘lifeless’ dog someone put in a box and dropped off on her front porch.
Janine immediately dropped what she was doing and rushed to the farm where her mom lived. However, she couldn’t stop thinking about why someone would drop off an already deceased dog.
Quickly, she called her mom back and asked her to check if the dog was breathing…
“Turns out this boy wasn’t [deceased], he was just unconscious. At that moment I knew it was a race against time,” Janine said. “A lifeless dog. Completely limp. I picked him up and rushed him to our routine vet.”
She was a mixed breed dog, only a year old, and still a baby.
His condition was very poor, he was extremely emaciated, disheveled, and covered in feces and urine. His pupils became cloudy and he started having seizures on the way to the vet. No one expected him to survive, but miracles do happen.
Achieve victory despite all adversity
The dog, whom Janine named G.I. Joe, was treated by a veterinarian, given IV fluids and treated for seizures.
His condition was critical, but after a few days he began to feel a little better. After a few days, he started getting up, walking (staggered), and feeding himself.
No one could believe it was the same dog that had been found unconscious just a few days earlier. His condition quickly improved, and after being discharged from the GI clinic, Joe went straight to his second home with Karen Spangler.
Karen is a wonderful foster parent with experience caring for dogs with epilepsy. She also has two other dogs, one of whom, like G.I. Joe, is blind.
“GI Joe (Joey) is doing great. Taking one step at a time. Working on potty training and he is doing great. Has started jumping up on occasion so we are working on that and “no”. He does appear to see some, probably shadows. He has a great smeller. He wags his tail often. For the condition he was in he is doing awesome,” Speranza Animal Rescue shared an update from Karen on their Facebook page.
A Wonderful Foster Fail
Although Karen didn’t want to adopt another dog, G.I. Joe (or Joey as she likes to call him) won her heart almost immediately.
“I didn’t want another permanent dog to add to my family. I told multiple family and friends I would not become a foster fail,” Karen told The Dodo.
This temporary situation quickly turned into a forever one.
The beautiful rescue pup bonded so much with Karen, her grandchildren, and her other dogs that she didn’t have the heart to put him through the adoption process again.
It was the only right thing to do because now, Karen simply couldn’t imagine her life without this furry little dog who beat all the odds and transformed into a happy little dog.
“They always say things happen for a reason, and this is so true. My family needed Joey. Never in a million years did I think he would turn out to be so sweet and smart. I’m looking forward to seeing where he takes us,” Karen said.
