I believe it was fate that brought Spirit and I together on Sunday, December 11. I was running errands that afternoon and missed my exit off of the freeway, forcing me to take a busy side street to get back on track. Shortly after turning onto that street, I spotted a small puppy in the middle of the road. Screeching to a stop, I opened my door and tried to scoop the puppy up. Instead, he dashed across two parking lots and into an abandoned miniature golf course. I followed the pup… first in my Jeep, then on foot… pushing aside tall grasses, crossing broken bridges that used to connect the now crumbling greens and through puddle after puddle. But, the closer I got, the faster the pup ran in the opposite direction.

Somewhere in the middle of the course, there was a clearing and I looked up to see another tiny, puppy. And then, another. I couldn’t get any closer than 10 feet from any of them. But, even at that distance, it was easy to see that they were extremely underweight, filthy and scared to death. After several hours of failed attempts to catch the puppies, I called a friend at the Humane Society and asked for help.

Temperatures were hitting record lows, reaching single digits over night. Desperate to get them out of the frigid cold, she set up live traps the next day and left me to monitor them. It was dark and the wind felt vicious. But, then I heard it – the frantic screams of a trapped puppy! Shocked that it worked, I rushed her home to warmth and food while my friend took over monitoring the traps. It took approximately ten more long, cold and boring hours before the other two walked into the traps. But, eventually they all gave into their hunger, were caught and have been placed in the safety of foster homes.

The first little puppy that was caught is being foster by me. It is a little girl that I am calling Spirit. She is terrified of everything. There is a fear in her eyes that breaks my heart. She appears to be about 10 weeks old and a combination of lab, shepherd and numerous other unidentified breeds. She is feral and has probably never been touched by a human before. Whether or not she will ever relax around people and be able to enjoy a loving family is yet to be determined. But, at least she is well fed and no longer freezing. The journey ahead of both of us is long and uncertain.

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