“She’d been outside for a day and a half in the freezing cold” 💔

Last week, as temperatures dropped below freezing, a pit bull mix named Emmy found herself outside and alone. Abandoned by her family in Ecorse, Michigan, during a blizzard, the scared senior pup had no choice but to curl up in a ball for warmth and hope that somebody would find her.

Luckily, rescuers spotted Emmy just as a thin layer of snow settled on her fur.

“She’d been outside for a day and a half in the freezing cold,” Lauren Boesen, board member for P.O.E.T. Animal Rescue, told The Dodo. “It was, like, two degrees Fahrenheit out with 30 mph winds.”

Emmy is currently under the care of P.O.E.T. Animal Rescue, but her rescue was a group effort — consisting of multiple agencies coming together to pick her up from her snowy spot outside and bring her to a vet who could give her the medical attention she needed.

Friends of River Rouge Animal Shelter was the first organization to hear about Emmy and immediately posted a call for help on social media. The director of a local spay and neuter clinic, The PAWS Clinic, then saw the post and offered to transport the pup to a vet. She brought Emmy to Pet Care Clinic Lincoln Park, where a veterinary team gave her a full examination.

“She was severely emaciated,” Boesen said. “Everyone kind of thought she wasn’t going to make it.”

On top of being underweight, Emmy was covered in fleas and had pressure sores on both her elbows and knees. The vet team estimated her age to be around 8 or 9 years old.

“She was likely kept in a cage for a very long period of time,” Boesen said. “She definitely has not had a nice past.”

After getting a closer look, they decided that Emmy needed to go to an emergency vet clinic immediately. That’s when her friends at P.O.E.T. Animal Rescue stepped in.

“A couple of our board members dropped everything to pick her up at the vet and drive her to the emergency clinic,” Boesen said. “They said she was just curled up in a ball in the back of the car.”

Just a few hours after she was initially rescued off a snowy street, Emmy was in the care of an emergency vet team. Their goal was to get her body temperature up since she was still freezing cold, and tend to her wounds.

Within minutes, the emergency vet team had fallen in love with Emmy.

“They said that she just perked up and that she was the sweetest girl,” Boesen said, “and that she always greeted people who were coming in to care for her by wagging her tail.”

By Saturday morning, Emmy’s temperature was stable and she was ready to go to a foster home. When Boesen went to pick her up, she was shocked by how much the pup’s personality had blossomed just 24 hours after being rescued.

“She came out to the lobby with her tail wagging,” Boesen said. “She greeted us and then started crying for other people in the lobby to pet her.”

Boesen and Emmy stopped at P.O.E.T. Animal Rescue before heading to her foster home, and she made herself comfortable right away.

“One of the first things she did when I took her to our shelter was climb onto the sofa,” Boesen said. “I was shocked.”

Boesen could tell that Emmy was ready for a loving home and an experienced foster family was waiting to welcome her into theirs with open arms.

Even though her foster home is temporary, Emmy is already receiving the love she’s always deserved. Two days after her rescue, the survivor pup was snuggled underneath a Christmas tree with her foster dog siblings, wearing matching holiday pajamas.

In a few weeks, Emmy will be available for foster again and Boesen is hoping that her next home will be the one she stays in forever.

“She’s just the most loving girl,” Boesen said. “She deserves the world.”