Family abandons elderly dog after moving house, chained and heartlessly left her unable to find food and water
A family in Bulgaria did the unthinkable with their elderly dog as they abandoned her before moving to some other place. The cruel family left the canine to live on her own and to make her life more miserable, they tied the animal with a heavy chain leaving her with no option but to be at the same place. The heavy chain around the dog's neck made her unable to go very far to find food or water.
The heartbreaking story of the dog named Athena was shared by a YouTube channel Paws 4 Hope, who said she survived off of scraps given to her by truck drivers who sometimes crossed her. Lack of food and water left the animal extremely malnourished while her fur was infested with fleas and ticks. The adverse situation also affected her sight as the animal lost vision in one of her eyes.
However, Athena’s story did not get a sad ending as Laurica Nagel, who worked as a volunteer for a dog rescue organization, went to investigate the matter after hearing the story that a dog has been chained up in the middle of nowhere by her ex-owners. After finding Athena, Nagel soon took her for medical help and she was provided with food and drink as well as a bath.
As soon as Athena recovered, search for her new home started, and a family in Moscow saw her photo online and loved her so much that they adopted her immediately.
In another incident, a dog traveled 200 kilometers (approximately 125 miles) to go back home after her owner abandoned her just months after buying her. A couple in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, bought the animal named Manora, a bull mastiff nicknamed Maru, when she was a puppy of five months from kennel owner Alla Morozova in Novosibirsk, Siberia. However, six months later, the female owner called Morozova and said she no longer wanted the canine because she was "allergic". “I never give up my puppies and when a dog is bought, it is stipulated that the owners should inform me if they do not need a dog anymore,” Morozova said.
The owners put Maru on a train with an attendant so she could go back to the kennel. But the dog was scared of the train ride and had a panic attack when the train stopped at a station in Achinsk, 200 kilometers away from her home. "The dog jumped on the compartment door, kicked the handle to open it, and almost threw the conductor out of the way. She jumped out like a bullet. When the door opened to the platform, she jumped out into the night,” Morozova said.
Maru reportedly wanted to go back to her owners and when the couple was informed that she was missing, they “were not upset at all”. "That angered me. They gave the dog away and the load fell off their shoulders,” Morozova said. The dog was found near her former home more than 48 hours later trying to look for her owners.
"Volunteers found her in an industrial zone. The dog was very tired. She was lame, her paws were broken. The pads were damaged. Her muzzle was broken. Maru fell from the railway embankment," Morozova added.