On a recent warm afternoon in Inverness, Mississippi, Kelsey Swindle was driving with her husband, Ryan. She was traveling down a gravel road in an area where there were no houses, when she spotted a dog tied to a utility pole.  Nearby, there was a rusty bucket which held a little water and a plastic tub with a few morsels of moldy food. Upon closer inspection, she discovered this dog had three very young puppies with her.   

Kelsey immediately called her grandmother, Sharon Stone, who is the Operations Manager for In Defense of Animals' Hope Animal Sanctuary, to ask if the dogs could be brought to our sanctuary, and, of course, Sharon could not turn down this little needy family.

The mother dog, now named Delta, had managed to slip from the chain and she was guarding her babies.  She seemed  to be terrified of people and barked loudly as Kelsey and Ryan approached.  They eventually managed to get the puppies extracted from inside a tangle of brambles, but Delta refused to come any nearer. 

The puppies’ eyes were just beginning to open and they still really needed their mother,  so Kelsey and Ryan were determined to catch her too - no matter how long it took!  Two hours later,  they finally coaxed her to come close enough to get her into a crate. 

Delta and her puppies are now safe at Hope Animal Sanctuary where they will remain until the puppies are old enough to be weaned.  Delta is still terribly afraid of humans and who can blame her after her horrible ordeal?  We continue to work with her daily, and hopefully she will learn that not all humans are bad.

 Sadly, her story is not that unusual.  Many dogs are abandoned when their “guardians” tire of them.  Delta’s story had a good outcome, but only because someone cared enough to stop and help.

Your donations to In Defense of Animals allows us to save more abandoned dogs like Delta and her little family.  Please help!