Last week we talked about how a picture of a dog won a major international photography contest. But the cropped version of the photo you see above? And the full version you see below? That photo is killing us. That photo is literally holding a knife and jabbing it at us. Poke poke poke. Look at this photo:
As you and the rest of the Internet bleed out, know that everything is okay with this little Chihuahua. She is in good hands, at Contra Costa Animal Services in Northern California, settling down after such a harrowing day standing atop a center-divide wall in the middle of northbound Interstate 680 in Walnut Creek.
That day, of course, was rough. One of the worst in the life of this Chihuahua. According to NBC, California Highway Patrol officer Alex Edmon said that officers got a call Friday about a Chihuahua running in lanes on the freeway. Then they got another call that the dog was sitting in the middle of the center-divide wall. How she got up there we don’t know. We could speculate, but we would sound insane. Look at that photo again.
When the CHP arrived, they approached slowly. Edmon is a dog owner himself. He knows how to appeal to a dog.
He got out the trail mix.
Alas, that didn’t work. Eventually, animal control arrived and they got the dog safely in the truck.
“We attempted to coax it, we could tell it was very frightened, it was shaking — we were able to pet it a little bit, but other than that we could tell it was not happy,” Edmon told NBC.
Edmon said the CHP gets calls about dogs on the freeway about once a week. They don’t know how this little one ended up in such a predicament.
“As of right now there are no witnesses that actually saw someone take the dog out of a car and leave it there,” he said.
The dog, thankfully, is going to be fine. As the picture set the Internet afire (the CHP posted it to its Twitter page) many people have called to adopt her. Here’s a message from Contra Costa Animal Services’ Facebook page:
She was obviously very scared because of her ordeal, but is starting to relax and come out of her shell. Today on Mother’s day, two of our wonderful kennel technicians spent their lunch socializing her and helping her overcome her fear. We have a great team of compassionate, animal loving staff … just one more reason to come and adopt at Contra Costa Animal Services.
And dog-owning officer Edmon, meanwhile, is using the publicity to put out the word to other dogs.
“I would try to encourage everybody to try and rescue any dog they can,” Edmon said. “Animal control has already been inundated with calls for this particular dog because of the story, but don’t be discouraged if you can’t get this exact dog — look for other dogs out there.”
Nice work, officer.
Via NBC
Read more about the bond between humans and dogs on Dogster:
