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She was only 5-months old, covered in cuts and sores, her entire body covered with a severe case of mange, when she wandered off the streets and into the loving arms of firefighters.
East Cleveland, Ohio firefighters called for help when a sad, severely neglected pitbull puppy wandered into the station and followed one of the firefighters around for a couple of hours.
“You see the dog that’s there, you want to say ‘eww, gross’ and judge, but underneath all that ‘eww, gross’ is just this sweet beast and a sweet animal that deserves love and care and it’s just hard to understand how she could’ve gotten this way,” Crossroads Animal Shelter veterinarian Samantha Siclair explained to USA Today.
Clearly Sistine, as she’s now named, had been neglected and homeless for many months, although it appears that she had, at one time, had a home as she knows and responds to some basic commands.
“It was a pretty smart move on her part (to come to the fire station), but she is desperate, her poor feet are swollen, she’s got open wounds on her head. Boy, just a little bit of love is going to go miles for her,” said East ClevelandFire Dept. Lt. Mike Celiga. “TLC and some anabiotics and get some meds for dealing with the mites. I’m hoping she will make a full recovery, but it’s going to take a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of medications.”
Celiga said that homeless dogs wander into the fire station a couple of times a year.
“Unfortunately no tags, no license, no collars,” said Celiga. “Sometimes they have a rope tied around their neck. It’s actually kind of sad, but it’s how it is.”
Sistine is being cared for by Berea-based dog rescue group MuttleyCrue Rescue, where she’ll be placed in foster care through her recovery before eventually being placed for adoption.
