“You can just see the difference in his eyes ...”
Donna Lochmann could hear a low growl as she bent down to look underneath an unoccupied van. After getting a call about a stray dog sleeping under cars in a residential St. Louis, Missouri, neighborhood, the experienced rescuer went straight over to look for him.
She checked a few cars first with no luck until she finally heard a familiar sound. The dog’s growl grew louder as she got closer to the ground, but Lochmann knew not to be intimidated.
“It’s not a mean thing,” Lochmann, who works for Stray Rescue of St. Louis as their chief life-saving officer, told The Dodo. “It’s just that they’re scared and that’s how they somewhat protect themselves.”
Soon, Lochmann was face to face with a white pit bull whose eyes were pleading for help. He was still growling, but she refused to leave him there alone.
She could tell by the dog’s weight that he hadn’t eaten in a long time, so Lochmann began throwing chunks of Vienna sausages under the car to ease his fears. As expected, the pup gobbled the sausages right up. But then he did something surprising — he started wagging his tail.
Slowly, Lochmann started to throw the sausages further out from the car. After enjoying a few delicious bites from the safety of his hiding place, the dog crept out from underneath the van and walked towards his rescuer. He was hesitant, but his tail continued wagging.
“All he wanted was to know we would help him,” Stray Rescue of St. Louis wrote in a Facebook post.
Finally, the pup, whom Lochmann named Avalanche, got close enough to let her put a leash on him.