In early November, a frail young dog curled up in the woods beside a back road in Jasper County, Georgia. Cold rain fell around him as cars passed by.
He was frightened, freezing, and far too weak to escape. When someone finally approached, he tried to get up.
The person who found him was Kristy Stephens, vice president of Whisker Warriors. Her daughter had spotted the dog while running errands and immediately called her mother for help.
The skinny dog barely had the strength to move. He simply sat there, shivering.
“I offered him some food,” Stephens told The Dodo. “After a few hesitant moments, he slowly came toward it. Once he was close enough, I slipped a leash on him to make sure he was safe.”
Stephens attempted to guide him toward her car, but the frightened dog refused to move. Instead, he turned and tried to retreat deeper into the woods.
She knew his condition was serious.
Stephens sent her daughter home to get blankets while she stayed beside the dog and patiently worked to gain his trust.
“I sat with [him], talking to him and giving him time to trust me,” she said. “Little by little, he let me get closer until I could place my hands on him and hold him to keep him warm.”
The original plan was to place the dog in a crate and take him to Tracy Campbell, director of the Jasper County Humane Society.
But once they got him into Stephens’ car and wrapped him in a blanket, they realized there was no time to waste.
“We saw how urgent his condition was,” Stephens said. “We made the decision to skip the crate and get him to the vet as quickly as possible.”
They made it just in time.
The dog, later named Rhodey, had a body temperature of only 95 degrees Fahrenheit. A healthy dog’s temperature is normally around 101 to 102 degrees.
The veterinarian told them that another hour in the cold could have been fatal.
“They slowly warmed his temp up, ran bloodwork … and gave him fluids,” Campbell told The Dodo.
Over the following days, Stephens and Campbell began learning more about the gentle dog.
Rhodey remained nervous and cautious, but he was slowly beginning to understand that he was safe.
The veterinarian estimated that Rhodey was about a year old. He weighed only 41 pounds — roughly half the weight he was expected to be for his age and size.
Blood tests also revealed that he was anemic and had heartworm.
Unfortunately, he was too weak to begin heartworm treatment immediately.
Still, Rhodey continued to make progress.
He slowly became more comfortable around the people caring for him. Although he remained shy around other dogs, he tolerated some new companions and enjoyed going for walks with Stephens.
Most importantly, he began gaining weight.
A few weeks after Rhodey was rescued, Campbell received a call from a retired woman who had recently lost her own dog.
She had once promised herself that she would never put her heart through that kind of pain again.
Then she saw a news alert about Rhodey.
The sadness in the young dog’s eyes touched her deeply.
She decided to give him a chance and began fostering him on November 23.
“When I delivered him [to his foster], I swear he walked into that house like he belonged there,” Campbell said. “He claimed it! Right from the beginning.”
For the next several weeks, Rhodey would remain with his foster mom while continuing to recover.
But he was already discovering something he had probably never experienced before — the comfort of being an indoor dog with someone who truly cared about him.
“I don’t see how this is not going to be a foster fail,” Campbell said.
Stephens was amazed by the transformation.
The dog she had found alone, freezing, and dangerously underweight in the woods was slowly becoming a completely different animal.
Based on the condition in which she found him, Stephens believed Rhodey had likely survived outdoors for weeks.
Despite everything he had endured, he refused to give up.
“Rhodey truly fought to survive,” she said.
And now, after surviving the cold and finding people willing to fight for him, Rhodey finally had the chance to experience the safe and loving life he deserved.
