When Bill from Missouri decided to take a fishing trip, he didn’t expect to find a new best friend on the way back home.
Because the trip was quite long, Bill decided to take a quick bathroom break at a rest stop on the road. He knew that he wouldn’t be gone for long, so left his car unlocked with the door still slightly open.
When Bill came back, someone had already claimed a spot in the car’s front seat.
A poor and malnourished stray pup decided to jump in the open car, clearly desperate for help.
Bill was immediately concerned about the four-footer and decided to offer her the only treat he had on him, a Rice Krispie bar. It was clear that the poor canine was starving as she ate the whole bar in mere seconds.
Right then and there, the kind man decided that he would do everything he could to help this pup and nurse her back to good health.
The four-footer clearly wasn’t in the best condition, but she was always kind and affectionate towards Bill.
The man isn’t a stranger to helping stray animals, as he and his wife have rescued and taken in numerous homeless animals in the past. Bill made sure that this pup didn’t have any family or any owners before he decided to bring her home. He then sent a picture of the four-footer to his wife saying that he’d found a new buddy to travel with, and his wife instantly agreed to keep her.
“I asked him what our new dog’s name was,” Bill’s wife Angela Shaver said to The Dodo. “We decided to call her River because of where she found him.”
After a couple of hours, Bill and River were finally back home. However, the pup wasn’t too keen on leaving the car.
Angela and the couple’s son welcomed River when they arrived and they all got along nicely, but the dog didn’t want to leave the car because she felt safe there. After all, the front seat of the car is where she found her loving owner and where she feels home.
Luckily, Bill managed to convince her to come inside after a while.
The Shaver family already had a couple of pups and other animals in the house, so they carefully introduced them to River one by one, to make sure that she wouldn’t feel scared or overwhelmed.
“Once they all decided she was OK, he [Bill] brought her in for a bath,” Angela recalls. “She was covered in mud, blood and ticks. After she was dried off and some ticks picked off, she got a good meal. Bill made her a bed on the floor in our room next to the space heater. She slept there all night.”
River is the fifth stray dog that they’ve taken in, and the Shavers also have one rescue cat. Even though it looks like they already have their hands full, there was still some room for another pet.
Slowly but surely, River started to feel home and at ease in her new environment.
For example, the next morning she started exploring the house on her own and played around with her new siblings. Letting her outside was a bit risky since she is used to living on the streets, but Bill and Angela made sure that nothing would happen to her. Adjusting to her new life hasn’t been without its hurdles, but it didn’t take long before River managed to settle in quite well. Her joy and confidence still grow stronger every single day.
“We had one accident in the house the first night,” Angela told. “But it was near the door. She had to go, but didn’t know how to tell us.”
The couple suspects that River had a home with a family at one point, but then ended up homeless or abandoned somehow.
The couple took her to the vet the next day for a medical check-up.
She wasn’t in any life-threatening situation, but she definitely wasn’t perfectly healthy either. The vet discovered a number of tapeworms as well as heartworms, and it looks like life on the streets has been rough for poor River. There were a couple of wounds across her body, neck, and face, indicating that she had been in a nasty fight of some sort.
However, the vet gave her medication and it didn’t take long before she was back at a hundred percent.
Right now, River is enjoying her life to the fullest. She loves hanging around with her new siblings and is finally given the love and attention she deserves. Her entire life changed for the better, just because she decided to hop into this kind man’s car.
“She runs in the yard and chases nothing with Winston, sits for cookies with Ginger and hogs the bed with Butters. The cat was very unpleased for the first few days, but is finally coming around.”
An amazing rescue story!
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