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During his usual morning rounds, collecting canine clients in his pup bus for doggy day care, Tyson Cash noticed that one of his regular dogs was accompanied by a pooch he had never seen before.
“I was like, ‘That’s strange, they didn’t tell me they were getting another dog,’” said Cash, who runs Keller Creek Boarding and Grooming in Franklin County, Ga., with his wife.
Motley, a Labrador retriever who had been attending day care at Keller Creek for over three years, typically waited for the bus on his front porch. However, on the morning of July 16, he was accompanied by another Lab.
Cash reached out to Motley’s owners to inquire about the new dog, and they informed him that they hadn’t gotten a new pet. Instead, a stray Lab had been roaming the area for a few days, and residents had been feeding him and occasionally letting him stay overnight.
Motley made his way to the pup bus, with the stray dog trailing behind. As Motley boarded the bus, the stray dog tried to follow him up.
“He wanted on the bus badly. He was doing everything he could to get on with the other dogs,” said Cash, explaining that he couldn’t let the stray dog on the bus.
“I didn’t know about his vaccination status. I didn’t know if he was on flea and tick prevention,” said Cash. “I didn’t want to jeopardize all the other dogs.”
He asked his wife to post a photo of the dog on Facebook to help locate its owner. Meanwhile, as Cash drove away in the pup bus, the abandoned yellow Lab gave chase.
“I felt horrible about leaving him,” said Cash, who posted a video on Facebook of the dog sprinting alongside his bus.
“I was concerned about him,” said Cash, adding that — despite already having nine dogs at home — he considered keeping the stranded pup if no one came forward. “I would have figured out a way.”
But he didn’t need to worry.
Sadie Peace, whose 2-year-old yellow Lab, Nellie, attends day care at Keller Creek, came across the Facebook post and felt heartbroken seeing the abandoned dog.
“To see a dog so desperate to catch a ride was very heartbreaking,” she said.
“I thought, I’ve got to reach out and see if anybody has a home for this dog. If not, I want him,” Peace said. “I had been wanting a friend for Nellie.”
She reached out to Cash, who then provided her with the contact details of a woman who had been caring for the abandoned dog, named Waylon. According to Peace, the woman’s two female dogs were in heat, so Waylon could no longer stay there.
That day, Peace and her boyfriend went to pick up the dog.
“He just walked right up to us with these big beautiful brown eyes and stared at us for a second,” said Peace, 21, adding that she decided to continue calling him Waylon. “He fell right in love with us as we did him.”
When Peace brought Waylon home, he was in poor condition.
“All his ribs were showing. He had fleas and ticks all over him,” she said. “You could just tell he had not been taken care of very well and he had been roaming around for, I guess, weeks.”
She took him to the vet, where they discovered he had a microchip. Waylon's previous owner agreed to transfer ownership to Peace and her boyfriend, although the microchip company provided no additional details about the original owner.
In the past month, Waylon, who is estimated to be 2 to 3 years old, has adjusted well to his new home and his canine sibling, Nellie.
“They both sleep in bed with us every single night,” Peace said. “They are best friends. They follow each other around everywhere.”
Waylon is becoming more outgoing with each passing day.
“He is a huge teddy bear,” Peace said. “He loves to cuddle. He wants belly rubs all the time, and he’s super well-mannered.”
Peace suspects that Waylon was abused, noting his neck scars and his tendency to cower in fear when people move suddenly or approach him quickly.
“We’ve been showing him that we’re not going to hurt him in any way and that he doesn’t have to be scared around us,” she said.
“I’m glad it was us that found him,” Peace continued. “It was just meant to be.”
Waylon's wish to ride the Keller Creek pup bus was finally fulfilled about two weeks ago, after he was brought up to date on all his vaccinations. He now attends the day care program approximately once a week.
“I knew if I could get him that we would give him the best home with a comfortable place to sleep,” Peace said. “And that one day he could get on that bus that he so desperately wanted to catch.”
Cash expressed his excitement at officially welcoming Waylon to Keller Creek.
“He did great. He fit right in with the group,” he said.
Cash voiced his relief that Waylon has found a caring home and is no longer roaming the streets.
“It worked out perfectly,” he said. “You couldn’t ask for a better ending.”
Source: The Washington Post