Tillie’s owners surrendered her to a Philadelphia shelter and asked for euthanasia, saying she was old, not eating and falling over. Then she walked into the Pennsylvania SPCA’s hospital wagging her tail, and a New Jersey couple who love senior dogs took her home.
Elyria, Ohio firefighters and their dive team rescued a dog trapped on a log in the Black River just upstream of a low-head dam. They floated him to shore in a life ring, named him River, and now he is waiting at the county kennel for his family.
Avishka Kaumadi’s cat Chuuti slipped out of his carrier at Dubai International Airport on October 11. She searched the cargo area at midnight, waited 28 hours, and flew home without him. Ten days later he was found in the baggage area and came home to Sri Lanka.
Guide Vrettos Sklavos and his group rappelled down to remote Kalami Beach on the Greek island of Kythira and found a week-old Mediterranean monk seal pup alone and starving. With rough seas blocking any boat, they carried her up the gorge in a climbing bag.
Jennifer Britton looked out at her yard in Lake of the Woods, Nova Scotia, and saw a young buck caught by his antlers in the family hammock. She backed away and called for help, and three wildlife officers sedated him, cut him free and cooled him with ice and lake water.
Luna, a 10-year-old Jack Russell and Chihuahua mix, darted out of her family’s Yellowstone cabin on Sept. 10 and survived more than a month among bears and wolves. A volunteer rescuer set a live trap baited with her family’s scent, and on Oct. 14 her owner found her curled up inside.
Stamford Vets receptionist Julia Durrant heard a tiny ginger-and-white kitten mewing from thick brambles in a layby off the A15 in Lincolnshire, with no homes nearby. After a borrowed trap failed, she rounded up a team of 14 with a net. Now Bramble has a loving new home.
Peggy-Sue the bulldog weighed 32.5kg when she arrived at RSPCA West Hatch and had to be carried to her kennel in a crate. A patient foster carer and a Taunton family who had just lost their dog helped her shed 9kg, and now she loves beaches, streams and cuddles.
Two Fort Worth rescuers raced to save a severely emaciated dog trapped in a muddy spillway where snakes lurked, two days before it flooded. At the shelter, her microchip revealed her name was Sadie, and her dad had been searching for her for two and a half months.
A Sandy Springs couple on a cupcake run had no idea a 6-week-old, 1.2-pound kitten was riding in their car’s wheel well until a stranger honked at them. It took three firefighters and two police officers to free him, and now Friday Shadow has a home.