“Her little whimpers when we walked up to her broke our hearts” 
It was a drizzly November day in St. Louis, Missouri, when an unsuspecting mail carrier happened upon a heartbreaking scene. As they drove along Pine St. toward Stray Rescue of St. Louis (SRSL), the postal worker noticed a nearby car slow down, shove a brown animal onto the sidewalk, then drive away.
“Our mail carrier just witnessed this dog get pushed out of a car down the street from our shelter,” SRSL wrote on Facebook. “Dumped out in the rain …”
The poor pup froze in shock as her family’s car trailed off into the distance. She sat on the leaf-laden sidewalk with her head down, whimpering loud enough for passersby to hear. The dog was desperate for a hero, and, luckily, the mail carrier refused to leave her behind.
They raced to SRSL and alerted the staff about the abandoned pup down the street. Within minutes, a team of SRSL staff members shuffled onto the sidewalk and found the poor girl exactly where she’d been left.
“Her little whimpers when we walked up to her broke our hearts,” SRSL’s Natalie Thomson told The Dodo. “She was just sitting there crying, not knowing what to do.”
You can watch that moment here:
Thankfully, the team of rescuers knew just how to help. They carefully approached the dog, whom they later named Toni, and began talking to her in a sweet, gentle voice. It only took a few seconds for them to win her over.
Stray Rescue of St. Louis“We walked up to her, and she let us leash her up,” SRSL wrote on Facebook. “We got her inside, dried her off with a big, fluffy towel and found a spot for her.”
Toni settled into her new kennel at SRSL, thankful to be in a warm, dry room instead of in the rain outside. She soon drifted off and got some much-needed rest after a difficult day.
Within a few days of her rescue, Toni’s personality blossomed fully. She quickly changed from a sad, downtrodden dog to a happy-go-lucky pup who loved everything and everyone she encountered.
“She is such a sweet and fun girl,” Thomson said. “She loves to play in the yard like a puppy and will bound around.”
In the weeks since her rescue, Toni’s received a clean bill of health and has been cleared for foster care or adoption. She’s still waiting for the perfect family to find her, but in the meantime, she’s enjoying every day at SRSL to the fullest.