Spread the love
In Houston, Texas, an eight-year-old neglected dog, named Phillip, spent months trapped on an apartment patio. He was never allowed inside the apartment, was always alone, neglected and painfully fading away.
Neighbors had been brokenhearted when they heard the dog’s plaintive cries, and through a small gap under the patio fence, would slip him food and water to keep him alive while pleading with local authorities for help.
When animal control officers had been dispatched to the patio, officers deemed the “covered” patio as sufficient shelter. According to the law Phillip had shelter, and since neighbors had been secretly feeding him, the hands of the humane officers were tied.
Most likely through pressure from neighbors, Phillip’s owner surrendered him to the apartment management. Three Little Pitties Rescue stepped up to help. Phillip had been his wife’s dog, and she had passed away two years ago. The husband had not wanted the dog and left him out on the patio, barely giving the dog a second thought.
And then Phillip was finally safe. A physical examination at the organization’s partner veterinarian hospital revealed bare spots on his neck where he had been constantly restrained with a chain or rope. He was skin and bones; his fur had been falling out in clumps. His skin was yeasty and painful, paw pads raw, and his body so frail, one could hear his heartbeat.
YET, through all this misery, Phillip was so grateful to know he was finally safe, his tail couldn’t stop wagging.
Phillip’s foster mother Emily never hesitated to volunteer the moment she had an opening, and Phillip is finally safe, resting and beginning to heal.
That’s why fostering matters so much. It’s the difference between leaving a dog behind and being able to step in when it counts. Even a short-term stay—or just a quarantine hold—gives us the power to say ‘yes’ in moments like this…