Your Wag! Walks Help Dogs — Like Liberty

A Facebook post turned out to be the beginning of a better life for a midwest dog now known as Liberty. A member of ARFF MO — Animal Responsibility for Fayette, Missouri — spotted the post, which included the dog's picture and a plea for someone to help her.

The nonprofit sent a team to find the dog, and found her living with her siblings outside a home in a rural area near Fayette. The people at the home were said to be abusive and uncaring about the dogs, which were all rescued on a 4th of July weekend, thus the name Liberty.

Liberty's slow path to recovery

To appreciate how well Liberty is doing now, it helps to understand how poorly she was doing when rescued. She had to be treated for sepsis and was so sick that she spent two days in intensive care, receiving fluids and antibiotics. She almost died twice.

Once returned to good health, Liberty’s overall recovery process took time. Members of the ARFF MO team spent almost three weeks teaching her how to play with toys and eight months getting her to trust someone to walk her on a leash.

GreaterGood.org's Rescue Bank helps rescues across the country

Dogs like Liberty benefit when pet parents use Wag! to schedule walks for their dogs. Wag! donates proceeds from its walks to GreaterGood.org’s Rescue Bank, which provides food to shelter dogs.

In Liberty’s case, GreaterGood.org’s Rescue Bank provided ARFF MO with high-quality wet food, which gave her much-needed calories, as well as vitamins and minerals that she had never received. This helped Liberty go from a sickly, 20-pound pup to a healthy, 40-pound pooch. 

In addition, ARFF MO used the Rescue Bank’s donated treats as rewards for Liberty — for housebreaking, to teach her to walk on leash, and to help her learn to simply trust people.

Teaching other rescues the ropes

Liberty now lives in foster care with several other dogs and two cats. Based on the pictures here, she’s loving her life. She spends her days playing outside, taking walks, and sleeping in her own bed. She also welcomes new foster dogs who come through the home, teaching them the ropes.

Liberty still has trouble eating dry food, and hair is missing from her tail and face — a result of malnourishment and having dermatomyositis, an inflammatory disease. But she’s overcome her past mistreatment by humans and is a beautiful example of why rescues are so important.

Results like Liberty’s make those of us at Wag! thrilled to partner with GreaterGood.org’s Rescue Bank and, indirectly, with shelters like ARFF MO across the country doing fantastic work for our four-legged friends.