Shannon Ackerman stopped at a Missouri City, Texas, Texaco gas station earlier this week to refuel. She had just rescued a mother husky and her two puppies from a drain pipe close to a motorway, and she was now taking them home. Ackerman received the biggest surprise, though, when she got out of her car.
“As soon as I started pumping gas, I felt something lick me on the back of my knee, which scared me,” Ackerman said. “When I looked down, this sweet, sad German shepherd, who appeared to have just had a litter, was looking up at me with a look on her face like, ‘Can you please help me?’”
Ackerman attempted to ascertain the origins of the German shepherd despite already having her hands full with the husky and her puppies.
“The gas station was pretty packed, so I asked really loudly, ‘Is this anyone’s dog? Did one of you dump this poor baby?’” Ackerman said. “Of course, nobody said anything.”
Ackerman also talked with the proprietor of the gas station, who said that he had seen someone abandon the dog and speed away before he could stop them.
The dog, eventually given the name Mercy, was screaming and whimpering to get inside Ackerman’s car at the same time. Sadly, Ackerman couldn’t take her — she already had the husky and puppies in her car, as well as dog traps and supplies. “It just broke my heart,” Ackerman said.
Ackerman, though, was determined to assist. Whitney Hartman, another independent dog rescuer, was still there when she returned to the location where she had saved the huskies.
“She told me there was a German shepherd mom in the [gas station] parking lot, whining and trying to get into her car,” Hartman said. “Of course, I couldn’t leave her there, so I drove over.”
All Hartman had to do was open her car door, and Mercy leapt in. “She jumped right in with no coaxing,” Hartman said. “She was so happy to be in the car.”
Hartman checked Mercy for a microchip, but not surprisingly, she didn’t have one. There was a dirty collar around her neck, but no ID tags.
“She was so sweet and smart,” Hartman said. “She kept nudging my hand to get love.”
Hartman took Mercy to her home and provided her a wonderful lunch and a cozy bed. The next day, Hartman placed her in a foster home with Sauver Des Chiens, a local rescue organisation that specialized in German shepherds.
“She is doing well,” Courtney Manske, communications director for Sauver Des Chiens said. “She’s a love and a very sweet dog. But she’s still … looking for her puppies. She’s so confused.”
The rescue group hasn’t given up hope that they’ll find Mercy’s puppies and reunite them.
“We are still actively searching for her puppies and any information that might lead us to them,” Manske said. “We’re scouring Craigslist and Facebook … looking for whoever might be rehoming them.”
The rescue team will make sure Mercy is put into the best possible new home at all costs.
