Dog Found With Porcupine Quills in Her Face Gets Rescued

On May 29th, one of the beloved long-term dogs in our rescue organization died. Her name was Emmy and she was a German Shepherd mix. She was nine-years-old and lived in the house with six other dogs, and was the sweetest dog anyone could ever hope to know.

I was devastated, but we are a rescue organization, so I decided the best way to honor my Emmy was to save another dog’s life. We began looking for a dog in need. It had to be a dog that would die without our help.

 

Close by in our little village in Brazil, the strays all look in reasonable shape. This is unusual for this area, but there are people helping them, including a group of taxi drivers.

We were restricted from going to areas where we knew we would find dogs in trouble by the terrible weather. We needed to drive on dirt tracks, as the remote rural areas are always the worst. It had been raining for a long time and our vehicle was not equipped with four wheel drive to cope with all the mud. So, time passed by and the rain continued.

It was still raining heavily on June 13th when one of our dogs was found barking constantly. She would not stop, and we began to investigate further to see why she was being so noisy. We saw nothing unusual, until we gazed in the same direction as her. Then we saw Gemma (as we later called her because it was the month of June and Gemini and because she is a little Gem). She was a tiny black and white dog huddled behind a spare kennel panel. Sandwiched between some bushes and the kennel panel, she was shaking. At first we thought she was trapped or injured. It was unusual to find a stray dog because it is a remote area high in the mountains without many human inhabitants. There is no available food supply and many dangers, including mountain lions and jaguars.

She didn’t try to run from us

Gemma was very thin, and she seemed grateful that we were trying to give her a safe place to stay.

We got her out from the bushes and she didn’t try to run. It was then that we noticed her nose was full of porcupine quills and she was extremely thin, with all her spine and ribs clearly visible under her fur. She weighed just nine kilos.

There was nothing extraordinarily strange about this rescue, except for the fact that we had been looking at dogs for days and hadn’t seen one in dire need in the local village, some eight kilometers from where we were. Ironically, a dog in need turned up right under our noses and stayed put until we attended to her and brought her in.

I will always think that Emmy guided this poor lost dog to us. She could only have come from the forest. Maybe somebody from the village had dumped her off. Gemma was starving, and with a nose full of quills, and in a bit more time, she would have suffered an infection. At nine kilos, she could have been killed by many things in the forest. Or, she could have died from starvation. She could have run back into the forest when we discovered her, but she chose to stay even though she appeared petrified. When we picked her up, she didn’t resist, and when we removed the quills stuck in her nose, she didn’t bite. She seemed to trust us completely. (See more photos here.)

Until the day I die, I will always believe Emmy told her where to go and what to do. It was Emmy’s parting and generous gift to us and Gemma.

Special note about the dogs

Last month, the Harmony Fund sent funds to rescued dogs in Brazil to build warm winter shelters for them. It is so satisfying to keep these dogs snug during the cold weather.

Do you rescue dogs too?

Here’s Gemma relaxing with one of our other rescued dogs named Guga.

Every week, The Great Animal Rescue Chase shares heroic rescue stories from animal lovers. We publish these stories as part of our mission to educate and inspire people. We believe in creating a culture of empowerment for animal advocates, of encouraging people to seize opportunities to help animals in distress.

Second chances are few and far between in the rescue business.  Sometimes if you wait to call a humane society for help, the animal will move on, and it will be too late.  Today we celebrate all of you out there who find the courage to do the right thing when you find an animal in need. If you have a story to share or would simply like to enjoy more good news from others, please visit us here.