Donna Lochmann received a call regarding a family of pit bulls that needed assistance. The Good Samaritan explained that there were three puppies hidden in an overgrown backyard, and their mama was terrified yet determined to protect them.
Even though she could see some puppies that needed rescuing, Lochmann knew from her years of experience as Stray Rescue of St. Louis’ chief life saving officer that she had to approach the situation strategically.
Lochmann told The Dodo, “I thought to myself, ‘Well, I’ll just try getting mom first because if she’s barking at me already, I don’t know how she’ll react when I start picking up her puppies.'”
Lochmann realized that the mother dog was starving, so she enticed her with a can of Vienna sausages before scooping her into her car. It only took minutes for the pup, whom Lochmann called Donutfest, to be safely inside the vehicle.
“After Donutfest was safe, my primary focus became finding the puppies,” explained Lochmann.
When Lochmann saw the first puppy, she was huddled on her own by a fence. Instead of running away when Lochmann approached her, she expressed through her body language that she didn’t want to be picked up.
“Lochmann was surprised that none of the neighbors came out when they heard the screaming,” she said.
Lochmann quickly reunited the first puppy with her mom in the car and set out to find the others. A scan of the yard located two puppies hiding in weeds and a third curled up on an abandoned couch.
At first, the puppies were familiar with their surroundings and ran away from Lochmann into the tall weeds.
But, instead of chasing them and running after them, Lochmann decided to use the lure of food just like she did with their mom. The rescuer opened a new can of puppy food, and the smell led the puppies straight into her arms.
With Donutfest and three of her four puppies in the car, Lochmann went to get the final puppy. The pup had been curled up on the couch but then leapt away and started running when it saw Lochmann coming.
Luckily, the puppy wasn’t running too fast. This gave Lochmann time to react and pick him up before he got further away.
“It took some time to get the final three puppies,” Lochmann said, beaming. “But once they were all in the car, I was ecstatic.”
Immediately after being rescued, the puppies who aced their veterinary screenings were sent into foster care. When Stray Rescue of St. Louis posted a picture of the four puppies on Facebook, they received an overwhelming number of requests to adopt all four pups.
“Many of them have already been adopted,” Lochmann said, “but Mama is still here.”
Though she has found plenty of digital love, Donutfest is still in need of an offline forever home. The pooch went from downcast to delighted and now always wears a smile.
Lochmann said, “She’s transformed into a happy girl who loves her caregivers and walks. We want her to have a forever home soon.”
The staff at Stray Rescue of St. Louis are determined to give Donutfest the best life possible until she finds a forever home, showing her all the love and care that she’s missed out on up until this point.
(h/t: thedodo)