Hot summer days can be a grueling experience for all those stray animals without shelter, food, and water.
On a particularly hot California day, one woman noticed something on a hillside in her neighborhood.
At first, she thought this mysterious animal was a coyote, but looking at it for three days straight, she finally came to the realization that it was an abandoned dog… the same one being posted on the Nextdoor app for weeks.
The poor thing must have been exhausted and beyond hot.
Helpless On A Hot Hillside
Over the course of two weeks, many neighbors spotted this dog in different places around their neighborhood, but no one reported it as “missing”.
Feeling that something was not quite right, the woman decided to reach out to a local rescuer from Irvine, California – Suzette Hall.
“It was so hot that day. I was feeling so dizzy, but I thought, ‘She’s gotta be hotter’,” Hall told The Dodo.
The dog was so far up on a hillside that it was difficult even for Suzette to climb up to her, but thankfully, kind neighbors let her use the access they had from their yard.
One thing was certain – Hall wasn’t giving up.
When she finally made her way up the steep hillside to the place near the bushes where the dog was hiding to keep cool, she could see the poor dog’s condition.
“You could tell that she hadn’t had water in days,” Hall said.
So, she set up a trap with treats near her and filled a large bowl with water. The dog was so hot that she drank the water almost immediately, but she wouldn’t go inside the trap.
According to Hall, it seemed like hours and hours went by.
She was eventually able to get closer to the dog and talk to her a bit, but it still wasn’t enough to catch her.
It wasn’t until she left to get some fresh chicken that she was finally able to lure her into the trap.
“I put the chicken in the trap and started to walk away and … I heard the trap shut. I turned around and started crying. This was such a hard rescue because of the location she was in, so I was exhausted and hot, and I couldn’t hold back my emotions,” Hall wrote in one of her Facebook posts.
When she finally looked closely at the dog in the trap, she noticed that it was actually a little Belgian Malinois puppy around 7 months old.
Since she couldn’t physically get the trap down the hill, Hall and her friend decided to call firefighters for help.
With the help of four kind-hearted firefighters, they were finally able to get this puppy out of the sun after weeks of wandering around.
A Little Ray Of Sunshine
“I named her Sunshine because it was so hot and because she’s a bright light of sunshine,” Hall said.
The name suited her personality and her situation almost perfectly. They don’t know what happened to her in the past, but they were certain that little by little, she would be a bright beam of sunshine.
“She’s just so scared. She’ll let you pet her, but she just shakes. That’s typical for being on the streets for a long time,” Hall said.
Sunshine was immediately brought to the vet in Irvine, where she was able to decompress. Everyone at the clinic showered her with love, which helped her regain some trust.
When she was done decompressing, Sunshine went to an amazing foster home. Brittany – her new foster mom – is an incredible dog trainer and exactly what Sunshine needed at the moment.
From that moment on, it was only days of sunshine for this sweet girl.
Her foster mom turned into her furever mom, and Sunshine was officially adopted.
Brittany said in one comment, “Originally was fostering, but when she walked up to me and gave me my first kiss, it was a wrap and I asked to adopt her.”
Sunshine is now loved, spoiled, and enjoys spending days with her furry big sister – Akeela.