She Survived 461 Hours on the Streets of DC

Butter spent 461 hours at-large on the streets of DC, and only just survived. She was terrified, scared of people, exposed to the elements, fading more and more with each passing hour. Remarkably, Butter survived the extreme winter weather--first an ice storm, then a snow storm. But our team knew she wouldn't last much longer, and pulled out all the stops to bring her home.

Butter escaped from her foster nearly 3 weeks ago. Immediately, our team jumped into action. We put up flyers and alerted the neighborhood message boards. We setup feeding stations and trail cameras to try and catch a glimpse of her. We setup dog traps and worked with local animal control teams. We patrolled the area and took shifts looking and searching for this poor pup. 

We'd occasionally catch a glimpse of her, or see her on the cameras. Each time, she looked thinner and weaker. Despite our attempts to provide food at all her known locations, she continued to lose weight. Even with our best efforts to trap her, she continued to evade us.

As her body began shutting down, she was slowing down. But she was also more susceptible to the elements, predators, or being hit by a car. Her time was running out. As the forecast showed low temperatures in the 20s and zero fat to insulate her emaciated body, she had days if not hours to live.

Thankfully, we caught her in the nick of time. Her rescuer could count each vertebrae in her spine. The moment she was captured, we rushed her to the vet. She was skin and bones--she'd lost so much weight in those few weeks outside! She was shivering and scared. The vet examined her, and was shocked that she'd survived at all. Any longer,  being so frail and exposed to the elements, and Butter would have surely perished.

Butter is lucky to be alive. When we brought her to the vet, she was severely dehydrated, emaciated, and on the verge of hypothermia. She has been receiving treatment to put weight back on, treat the parasites that were riddling her body as she scrounged to survive, and still needs to be spayed. 

Butter has had a pretty tragic run here lately. You may recall, Butter gave birth to 10 puppies while living as a stray at an old construction site. After being rescued, Butter developed a TERRIBLE case of mastitis. Gratefully, she received treatment and made a full recovery. She was on her way to a spay appointment when she managed to slip away from her fosters. 

Butter continues to need our help to support her rescue and recovery, from all the horrifying curve balls life has thrown her way.