Finding Winnie! (as told by her foster mom Joanne)

Winnie has had a rough start in her short 2 years of life. She was brought into PACC at the age of 1 ½ with 6 other dogs surrendered by an owner who gave up on them all. Tucson Cold Wet Noses rescued Winnie (Formerly Whisper) from PACC on 5-1-14 after she was put on quarantine for a bite incident. Winnie was in the process of being adopted and on a play date with the prospective adopter when she darted out the door with her harness and leash on. She was lost alone in the desert for the past 3 weeks! I can’t even imagine how terrified she must have been. But we never gave up and never stopped looking for her. When finally found, she required emergency hospital care and we now need to ask for your donations to help cover the unexpected cost of her emergency hospital visit and overnight stay. She is finally home safe and making an amazing recovery.

This is the story of her three week adventure in the desert of Sahuarita, near the air park…

On Oct 5th, Winnie was on a “play date” with a potential adopter when she escaped and made a run for it with her harness and leash on. The area is rural in a Sahuarita airpark with lots of undeveloped land. We combed through the brush, washes, desert terrain, knocking on doors, handing out flyers and never ever giving up hope our Winnie would be found.

On Oct 14th (9 days later), a neighbor thought he heard what sounded like a dog on state land, but we were told he checked and did not find anything. He also never told us where, so we could go look ourselves. We then found out two days later on Oct 16th (11 days later) she was found in that same area with her leash caught on a tree. She had been stuck for 2 days howling, barking and crying alone in the desert, can you imagine how terrifying that was for such a tiny dog?! When the boys freed her she took off running to the opposite end of the airpark and then running down a wash back into the desert.

On Oct 24th (19 days later), we were told a man found her on his property cornered by his 5 big dogs. Concerned for her safety, he took her to the front of his property and placed her outside the front gate. He then turned around and didn’t look to see what happened to her. Later he realized she was the missing dog on the flyers and called. We then spent the next two days focused on searching that area for her.

On Oct 26th—finally, after 3 full weeks (21 days later), Winnie was found by a wonderful man who decided to look for her on his way home. Thank goodness he did, since he told us Winnie came out of the brush and collapsed in the road. We have no doubt, this was her last chance at being saved and she would not have lasted through the night. He and his wife brought Winnie to town and met us at Valley Animal Hospital. She was dehydrated, weak, eyes shut, limp and couldn't stand or hold her head up. She was sick and completely exhausted. The wonderful staff at Valley Animal Hospital gave her outstanding care. She was given subcutaneous fluids and blood work showed her sodium and potassium were at dangerous levels and she was put on an IV drip in an effort to slowly bring down the sodium. I brought her home later and she could now lift her head and walked some, although she was unbalanced and wobbly. She was still completely exhausted, but was now eating small amounts of food. She has lost close to one third of her body weight, so even though she is safely back home, she has some recovery ahead of her. She is literally improving by the minute and starting to run and play with her foster brothers and sisters again. So far her progress has been nothing short of AMAZING! 

We would like to THANK YOU ALL for your generous support, help, positive attitude, well wishes and for pulling together to get Winnie back home!

So many people asked how they could help sweet Winnie during her harrowing experience. Now that she is safely back home with her loving foster mom, the most helpful thing you can do is to please make a donation today to help TCWN cover her unexpected and expensive vet bills. Every little bit will help.... and again thank you for your support! If you prefer, you can also contact Valley Animal Hospital directly at (520) 748-0331 and tell them your donation is for Winnie, with Tucson Cold Wet Noses. We will adjust the amount needed here if there are donations called in for Winnie directly to VAH.