This little guy, only a puppy, has been through so much at such a young age.
Cadet, a rescue from Oklahoma, was trapped along with his siblings before making his way North to rescue. He was in a trial foster to adopt situation when he was let outside in the backyard without leash and was able to slip through the fence on April 29th.
The fosters initially worked hard to find and capture Cadet. In early June he was by the grace of God trapped which doesn’t often happen so easily with dogs who have been previously trapped. However, relief turned to sheer horror. While making their way to the trap to bring him home, the fosters watched from their camera as the new Middletown animal control officer opened the trap and simply let him loose.
Over the next few months Cadet embarked on journey through Middletown, NY continuously being failed by humans. At one point he was pictured on a couch inside someone’s home. When contact was made with these people, they said they gave him away, only to be informed that the people they gave him to said he wasn’t very friendly so they heartlessly let him go to fend for himself.
Finally Cadet found kindness at a home on Eisenhower Drive. Linda and her mother Julia would leave food and toys for him everyday for months. He was terrified and would never let his guard down and why would he after being failed so many times by so many. He would gratefully eat the food and then run off with his toy treasures. Not only did he love the toys, especially squeaky ones, he loved shoes..slippers, crocs, sneakers, flip flops and soon became known as the neighborhood shoe thief. It was discovered that he would bring his treasures to a neighborhood tennis court that became his play pen where he would be seen frolicking and playing by himself.
Every morning and every evening like clockwork, Cadet would wait for Linda or Julia to call out those magical words “puppy puppy” and that was his queue to come eat.
A concerned resident, Justina, made a post on social media after her son spotted him in the tennis court playing with toys. The foster as well as our friend Victoria who runs the HV Lost Pets page immediately reached out to us. We immediately packed up and made the trek out to Middletown, NY to bring Cadet to safety and we weren’t leaving until he was caught.
For days we watched as he ran in the middle of the road almost getting hit, completely oblivious to cars. He had no clue that we were watching him sneak his toys and shoes and desperately trying to befriend neighborhood cats that wanted no part of it.
As expected he wanted nothing to do with traps, so one of our large enclosures was set. Anything new to his environment freaked him out. It took an entire day before he would get within a couple feet of it. Once he realized there were new toys and shoes as well as an all you could eat buffet in there, it was game on and he wanted in! We waited him out and watched through our live feed cameras as he made baby steps of progress, being rewarded with stuffies for his braveness.
At 9:20 last night his hungry belly and his shoe fetish got the best of him and he made his way all the way in for chicken and crocs 🤣. The door slammed shut and his four months to the day on the run came to an end.
Thank you Justina for posting him on social media, Victoria from HV Lost Pets for always keeping an eye out for sightings and especially Linda and Julia for your kindness and caring for this little being that needed you both so much, you were the only ones who didn’t fail him.
He is now back with the rescue in New Jersey. Where he will be worked with extensively and allowed time to learn to decompress and trust. You will never be failed again little one. We love you Cadet! ♥️
Your donations allow us to help dogs like Cadet. It certainly takes a village.
