Who knows how many days Sawyer spent struggling on the Texas street, looking at the passing cars and wondering when someone would stop by?
When Zully Vasquez Ventura, an animal advocate, saw him on the streets, her heart broke. Sawyer was lying in the middle of the road, feeling dejected. He didn’t move when the cars drove towards him. He seemed to have given up.
Ventura left food for Sawyer and the other dogs who were with him on the streets.
She noticed that the pup limped as he walked toward the food. He was injured.
Unfortunately, the other stray dogs didn’t let him eat anything.
Ventura posted a plea on Facebook in hopes of finding a rescue that could take him in.
Help Finally Arrives
When Laura Forma, the founder and executive director of ThisIsHouston, a rescue focused on helping sick and injured dogs, came across Ventura’s post, she immediately reached out to her team to see if anyone could step in and save him.
Upon seeing the message, Tara Hall, a board member and volunteer, made her way straight to the location.
She secured the sweet pup, who agreed to go with her. Hall drove him to the vet to get him checked.
Sawyer was infested with fleas, battling infections in both ears, and suffering from an abscess on one of his front paws.
After the pup took an X-ray, it showed that both his back legs had been broken. One of them healed correctly, but the other didn’t.
At the time, the vet recommended amputation.
Hall took Sawyer home and agreed to bring him back in two weeks so that they could check whether he needed amputation.
Sawyer was glad to move in with Hall and it didn’t take long for him to reveal his true disposition. Hall was thrilled when she realized that his back leg didn’t represent an issue.
“He runs up and down the stairs, jumps on the bed, jumps on the couch, runs around and plays with other dogs in the house,” Hall told The Dodo.
Since Sawyer didn’t have any accidents in his kennel, Hall was sure that he lived in a family home at some point. Stray dogs usually need some time to get used to going potty outside.
When Bobbie Nolen, an Austin resident, saw ThisIsHouston’s post about the pup, she felt a strong connection to him and applied for adoption.
“I saw the video that they posted and was like, ‘That’s my dog. I’m gonna do whatever I can to get that dog,’” Nolen told The Dodo.
A Fateful Encounter And A Promise
She drove to Houston to meet Sawyer.
When he saw her for the first time, the pup ran to her arms and sat in her lap. It was love at first sight.
Nolen needed to wait for Sawyer to heal completely before she took him to his forever home.
When Hall brought the dog to the vet for his next check-up, she described to the vet how playful he was. This time, a different vet examined him and decided that amputation wasn’t necessary at the time and that it was possible that he wouldn’t even need it.
She also estimated him to be around a year and a half.
After spending the next three weeks with Hall, Sawyer healed both emotionally and physically, and was ready to move in with his new mom.
The pup, whose name is now Walter, didn’t take long to settle into his new home. He was thrilled with the toys his mom bought him and he also loved playing fetch in his new yard.
Most of all, Walter loved snuggling with his mom on the couch.
Nolen’s heart breaks when she notices that Walter sometimes forgets that he doesn’t need to fight to survive.
“I have all of his food in a big Tupperware container. When I go to feed him, I open the container, and he very, very gently — and I think he thinks he’s being sneaky — puts his head in and gets a little bite of food and then takes off running,” Nolen added.
I’m sure that Walter will soon realize that he doesn’t have to worry about anything anymore. From now on, he will live a wonderful life with his forever human who adores him.
