It was a warm spring day in California’s Los Angeles County when a woman named Lorena spotted something unusual in her neighborhood. A longtime auto body shop had suddenly shuttered its doors, and the business’s owners were nowhere to be found. The shop was eerily quiet until a sound rang out from its gated parking lot.
To Lorena’s surprise, an animal with dark-brown fur emerged from the property. The woman instantly recognized him — the dog lived at the shop while it operated. But the owners sadly forgot about him when they left.
“[It was] the only home he knew,” Suzette Hall, founder of Logan’s Legacy 29, wrote on Facebook. “[The] poorbaby was exhausted, hungry and sad … [but] he had an angel watching over him.”
Lorena tried to rescue the dog, later named Rusty, but he ran from her grasp. She left briefly to grab food for the pup and call Logan’s Legacy for help.
Hall raced to the body shop but soon encountered gridlocked traffic. She recruited a friend who lived nearby, Mary, to check on Rusty until Hall arrived, and she was shocked by the volunteer’s update.
“When she got there, there he was begging for love,” Hall wrote. “Mary said to me, ‘He is so tired, he looks like he wants to surrender.’ Mary was right; he was ready.”
After multiple failed attempts, Rusty finally allowed Mary and Lorena to scoop him up. The women celebrated their accomplishment as Rusty melted into his rescuers’ arms.
“Tangled, covered in oil and so matted, he was finally safe,” Hall wrote.
You can see more footage from Rusty’s rescue here:
Hall eventually arrived at the scene and happily loaded Rusty into her van. She drove the exhausted boy to Camino Pet Hospital, where he underwent a complete medical evaluation and makeover.
To make him comfortable, the veterinary team shaved away Rusty’s matted fur and gave him a much-needed bath. With the layers of motor oil washed away and clumps of knotted fur removed, Rusty looked like a new dog.
Aside from the condition of his fur, Rusty was generally healthy. After a round of fluids, nutritious meals and hundreds of cuddles from the veterinary staff, Rusty was finally ready to find a forever home.
Luckily, the sweet pup didn’t have to wait long for his next chapter to begin. A lovely family soon adopted him, and he’s been living his best life ever since.
“He had lived at that shop but never really had a home or knew what a home felt like,” Hall wrote in an update on Facebook. “Well, his dreams of having a family and his very own home [have] come true. He has been adopted by the best family there could ever be.”
You can watch Rusty playing in his new home here:
Today, Rusty spends his days running around his family’s home, picking out his favorite toy from an overflowing pile of plushies and taking comfy naps by his parents’ side. He might’ve been abandoned in the past, but now Rusty feels valued and loved.
And Rusty’s rescuers couldn’t be happier for him.
“[We] love you so much, sweet boy,” Hall wrote. “You deserve this more than ever. You are wanted, and you are home.”
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Source: USA Today
