Family rescues abandoned dog during pandemic
KENNETT SQUARE » One local family found unexpected joy this summer thanks to the love of an abandoned dog found wandering alone across a busy roadway in Southwestern Chester County.
Kennett Square Borough resident Kris Smith said her daughter, Anna Smith, was driving home from work in late July when she saw what she thought was a coyote crossing the road in front of her car.
“Dogs find said. “That’s real lesson.”
The incident occurred near the City of Coatesville.
“It was after midnight, and she wasn’t sure what she saw so she slowed down and pulled over so she could take a better look and found that it was a sweet dog that was running loose,” Smith said. “She watched as the dog began digging through some trash cans and when she cracked her door open, just a bit, the dog came running over to her and put her nose right in the door of the car.”
Smith said the situation was clear: the dog was looking for food, and Anna thought she was in danger since at any moment as a passing car could have struck the pup.
“So she brought the dog home,” Smith said. The family posted the dog’s photo on social media and reached out to regional dog shelters and the police station near where she was found. No one claimed her.
The Smith family named her Zena.
The day after the Smith family rescued Zena, that next morning, she was brought to a Chesco vet who scanned her for a registration you,” Smith actually the
Zena now lives the good life, thanks to her adoptive family, in Kennett Square.
chip but none was found.
“The Brandywine SPCA has been wonderful,” Smith said. She added, after a week of looking for the dog’s owners, West Caln Township Police Chief Curt Martinez contacted the Smith family and told them no one had come forward to claim the dog.
“We had done our due diligence in looking for the owner,” Smith recalled the chief saying.
“By then we were calling her Zena because she reminded my daughter of a princess warrior,” Smith said. “The small dog had marks in her fur that indicated she had been in some dog fights, she was fierce and wild, but very sweet at the same time.”
The Smith family brought Zena to the Brandywine SPCA and found out that she was about three years old based on her teeth, and that she had not yet been fixed. “We didn’t know anything about her history so we had her fully vaccinated, fixed, chipped, and registered so that we could take her home and call her our own,” Smith said.
She said this energetic little dog loves to go for walks and seek squirrels in the neighborhood.
“We have walked all over Kennett Square, and we love Anson B. Nixon Park where there are some fenced in dog areas for her to run around,” Smith said. “Zena has made lots of human friends in town and has a neighbor dog, named Lola, that she looks forward to seeing every day. There is also one little dog that Zena seems to have a crush on named Phillipe.”
Smith stated, “Everywhere we go, people love her.”
Zena came into the lives of this Kennett Square family after Smith had lost her job in June due to her company downsizing. Indeed, millions of Americans lost their jobs last year due to unprecedented shutdowns of everyday commerce across the nation from Pennsylvania to California and beyond.
And while helping an unwanted dog by opening up one’s home may be atypical for some, the reward has been nothing short of uplifting for the Smith family.
“Zena rescued us this year during the pandemic when we had to stay home and isolate from friends and family,” Smith said.
In January, Smith suffered an accident when she fell to the ground and sprained both of her ankles. She was unable to walk for several weeks. Soon after the fall occurred, Smith, via social media, asked members of the Kennett community for help.
“Some of the dearest people reached out to help walk Zena and bring food over to me knowing that I could not walk, I have some wonderful friends in this community,” Smith said.
She thanked community members Sonya Mosicant and Roy Mosicant, neighbors Melissa Weide
man and Drew Weideman, Anne-Ashbrook Doerfler, Jennifer French, Karen Hostetler Jack, Lynn Perry Brenner, Nanci Hersh, Leah Reynolds, and others whom Smith said “just called to check in on us.”
Sprained ankles take time to heal, however a good six weeks later, Smith was back on her feet and walking Zena around the neighborhood again.
“Now that the weather is warming up it is great to be out and about,” she said.
“Zena loves to help me with gardening and I am looking forward to doing yard work with her in the spring,” Smith said. “One surprising thing that we
learned about Zena is that she loves carrots. She will even dig them out of the ground for us.”
Smith added, “It has really been a tough year for everyone, and we were blessed to be found by Zena, she is heaven sent and we love her.”
Due to the pandemic, especially in low-income parts of the country, there has been an increase in people abandoning their family dogs at shelters, according to Jack Merritt of Greenmore Farm in West Marlborough Township. His wife, Julia Altman, founded the nonprofit organization. Merritt described himself “as her No. 1 volunteer.”
He said, “There’s a greater need to find rescue homes for these dogs now more than ever.”
“Adopting a dog that was rescued from these terrible situations does a couple of things for families,” Merritt said. “They give them the ability to feel good about themselves that they did a small piece to save a life. But more importantly, they often find themselves saved by this rescue dog because almost nothing loves a human more than a rescue dog.”
He described rescue dogs as embodying “an absolute and complete unconditional desire to love their families.”
He said adopting a rescue dog brings “such joy” to those who adopt. “So,” Merritt said, “it’s a two-way street.” The dogs and people both benefit from the love they share.”
He urged people to search their hearts prior to surrendering them at a shelter.
“Nobody wants a dog in a shelter,” Merritt said. “That said, if you are in a position that you have to surrender your dog, please find an open-door shelter.”
He added, “Don’t just leave your dog at the corner of 926 and 82.”
Merritt said there are many nonprofit organizations across the region that are dedicated to help rescue dogs surrendered at under-funded shelters in places such as West Virginia, North Carolina and elsewhere.
“Find one local to you,” he said of these dog rescue organizations. And donate to them, he added, with charitable gifts. He added that Greenmore is always looking for volunteers as well.
“As demand has gone up, our expenses have gone up,” said Merritt in light of the pandemic which began in Pennsylvania on March 13, 2020. “This has been a particularly expensive year for rescuers.”