Ashley Garza was on her way for a business meeting in Texas when something caught her eye. It was a dog on the shoulder of the four-lane highway with a heavy chain wrapped around its neck.
As a freelance rescuer, Ashley knows how difficult such a rescue can be. I figured she might take a photo of the German Shepherd mix before she ran away. But when I parked the car and opened the door, the friendly dog came right over.
The dog was covered in mud and dragged a huge rusty chain. It was wrapped around her neck twice and Ashley couldn’t even understand how a dog could hold her head. She knew she had to take the dog there and after.
I put the dog in the back of the car and tried to remove the 20 pound chain. But she couldn’t get rid of it on her own.
As Ashley continued to drive her to work, she also observed the dog in the rearview mirror. The German Shepherd would look out the window, lie down, then get up and start again. Ashley could tell the pup had never been in a car before.
Ashley ended up driving to her friend’s house where they worked together to remove the chain. They were able to move it overhead without cutting it.
A friend, Luz Guzman, volunteered to take care of the dog, now named Penelope. Penelope is fine now.
“Obviously, just from this series, I can only imagine how I was treated,” Ashley told The Dodo. “So to be so lucky is just too awful. It happened so fast.”
Ashley hopes this story will encourage others to do the right thing when they see a dog in need.
“A lot of people say, ‘I don’t know how to find all these dogs because I’ve never seen any stray dogs and I don’t see any infected dogs.’ But they’re there. We run into them all the time. ” Ashley continued, “We need a heart. Compassion is free.”
h/t The Dodo
