When Donna Lochmann received a phone call informing her that a family of pit bulls was in need of assistance, she immediately recognized that the rescue operation would be a challenging one. The good Samaritan who found them reported that there were at least three puppies hidden in the overgrown backyard, and their terrified mother was determined to protect them.
Lochmann, who has worked for Stray Rescue of St. Louis for many years and currently serves as the organization’s chief life saving officer, was aware that the rescue operation required a planned strategy. When she arrived there, she could see other puppies hiding in plain sight, but she realized she couldn’t save them until she was able to get beyond the first obstacle.
In an interview with The Dodo, Lochmann explained, “I thought, ‘Well, I’m just going to try to get mom first because if she’s barking at me, I don’t know what her reaction is going to be when I start picking up her puppies.”
Lochmann could tell that the mother dog was famished, so she popped open a can of Vienna sausages and enticed the guard dog to follow her to her vehicle by offering the food. It didn’t take more than a few minutes for Lochmann to get the dog, whom he dubbed Donutfest, safely buckled inside the car.
“Once I determined that Donutfest was not in danger, I immediately began looking for the puppies,” Lochmann explained.
The very first puppy that Lochmann spotted was a solitary female snuggled up against a fence. When Lochmann approached her, she did not flee, but she did figure out how to convey how she felt about being taken by him.
“She immediately began shrieking,” Lochmann reported hearing afterwards. “I can’t believe that nobody in the neighborhood came out to see what was going on.”
After reuniting the puppy with her mother in the car, Lochmann continued her search for the missing animals. After a quick search of the backyard, Lochmann discovered two puppies scurrying for cover in the weeds, while another puppy was found snuggled up on an old couch.
The puppies were accustomed to their environment, and because of this, they did everything in their power to avoid Lochmann at the beginning. It was difficult for Lochmann to catch the two of them because they had run further into the dense weeds.
However, rather than pursuing them, Lochmann chose to entice them to come to her in the same way that she had done with their mother. The person who rescued the puppies opened a fresh can of dog food, and the aroma of the food drew the puppies directly into her arms.
Donutfest and three of her four puppies were safely secured in the car, leaving Lochmann with the responsibility of rescuing the lone remaining puppy. The last dog jumped down from the couch, where he’d been snuggled up, and immediately began to flee from the person who had saved him.
Lochmann was able to gently pick up the puppy because he wasn’t moving very quickly, and this allowed him to do it before the puppy got any farther out of reach.
“It took me a while to get the last three puppies,” remarked Lochmann. “I’m sorry.” “But once I finally got them all in the car, I was so happy.”
The puppies were placed with a foster family very soon after they were rescued, and they breezed through all of the required veterinary exams with flying colors. As soon as Stray Rescue of St. Louis posted a picture of all four puppies together on Facebook, an overwhelming number of people expressed interest in adopting each one of the puppies individually.
According to Lochmann, “I think that the majority of them have already been spoken for in terms of finding their forever homes.” “But Mama is still here with us.”
Although all of her puppies have received a lot of love and attention on the internet, Donutfest has not yet found a permanent residence of her own to call her own. The once-maltreated canine is now a carefree puppy that wears a perpetual smile on her face and is always in a good mood.
“She’s completely just a happy, smiley, bouncy girl now who loves her caregivers and going on walks,” said Lochmann. “She’s completely just a happy, smiley, bouncy girl now.” “It would mean the world to us if she could find a forever home and be adopted at long last.”
The employees at Stray Rescue of St. Louis are holding out hope that Donutfest will be adopted into a caring and permanent home in the near future. In the meantime, they are making the most of their time with the energetic little dog and showering her with all the love and attention that she has been lacking.
