The family dumped their trash and undesired goods in the alleyway behind their house before leaving their Dallas neighborhood. Unfortunately, one thing they no longer wanted was their puppy, so they abandoned her and her blanket on the street.

Marina Tarashevska, the cofounder of Dallas DogRRR, went for a stroll in her neighborhood on New Year’s Day, the day after the dog’s owners vanished, and spotted the abandoned puppy clinging to the blanket.

“It was really cold and rainy, and the dog was lying on her blanket — and she wouldn’t leave it,” Patti Dawson, executive director of Dallas DogRRR, told The Dodo. “I think she was still thinking her family would come back. She was in that stage of, ‘I’ll just wait here. This is familiar.’”

After speaking to concerned neighbors and learning the dog’s sad story, Tarashevska attempted to rescue the dog. But it wasn’t easy. “Marina would flee if she got close to that blanket,” Dawson explained. Tarashevska had an idea when the dog continually returned to the blanket after Tarashevska had retreated. Tarashevska now dragged the blanket down the passageway toward her own house whenever the dog bolted.

After doing this for about an hour, the blanket — and the dog — had reached Tarashevska’s backyard, and Tarashevska was able to grab hold of the dog and get her into the safety of a kennel.

The dog, now named Camilla, was terrified.

Dawson described her as “essentially curled up in a ball in the rear of the crate.” “You could reach out and touch her, but she was paralyzed with terror.” She avoided eye contact and kept her head down. If you got too close to her, she’d shove her head into the kennel’s back, as if to say, ‘Don’t look at me, don’t make eye contact with me, don’t touch me.’ ‘Get out of here.’

Camilla also had fresh cuts on her neck and ears, which Tarashevska noticed and took her to the vet right away. Dawson explained, “The vet indicated it was she was probably kept outside.” “The only other possibility was that she had gotten into a battle with a dog when she went outside.” There are a lot of stray animals around, so it’s possible they got into a fight over food.”

Camilla had neck surgery and is now on the mend – not just physically, but mentally as well.

Dawson said, “She’s doing fantastic.” “Her personality is gradually emerging, and she is beginning to trust.”     Camilla is now in a foster home, where she is receiving a lot of love and attention – and she is changing dramatically.

Dawson said, “She’s doing fantastic.” “Her personality is gradually emerging, and she is beginning to trust.” Camilla is now in a foster home, where she is receiving a lot of love and attention – and she is changing dramatically. Camilla will stay in foster care a little longer so she can continue to heal, but she’ll soon be up for adoption. “We don’t know what she went through before we got her,” Dawson said. “It’s going to take time for her to realize that she’s in a safe environment. But she’s slowly coming around.”

Source: Dallas Dogrrr