The other day, an Amazon driver passing through a park in Los Angeles County, California, stumbled upon an object that didn’t belong there. The tall, white laundry basket seemed out of place at the park, and the driver couldn’t help but stop and investigate.
When they looked inside, they were shocked to find a pile of fur at the bottom of the basket — and it was breathing.
“My heart just sank,” Suzette Hall, founder of Logan’s Legacy 29, wrote on Facebook.
A helpless, matted Yorkie hid in the laundry basket, motionless. And although the driver had a mountain of deliveries ahead of them, they couldn’t bear to leave the little one behind.
The driver quickly contacted Logan’s Legacy 29, and a volunteer named Rosario Ortiz soon arrived at the park to help. She carefully loaded the poor pup into her car and drove straight to Camino Pet Hospital, where a dedicated veterinary team took over.
The sweet pup, later named Solene, appeared to be around 7 or 8 years old. And although a Yorkie her age would normally still be chipper and active, this solemn girl struggled to move. X-Rays soon showed that she had a broken leg.
Solene’s rescuers had no idea how long she’d been injured or the circumstances around her abandonment in the first place. But there was one thing they knew for sure: Solene was resilient, and she had a fighting chance to make it through.
“She is very, very weak, and she has clearly already been through so much,” Hall wrote. “And now she needs us.”
Solene’s surgery was estimated to be a few thousand dollars, and Hall worried she wouldn’t be able to afford it. But after Solene’s story went viral, a community of people decided to chip in and help. Thanks to a multitude of generous donations, Hall raised $4,000 to cover Solene’s surgery and ultimately change her life.
“She deserves to know what it feels like to run and play and simply be a happy little girl,” Hall wrote on Facebook.
Solene’s surgery went according to plan, and she even got a much-needed haircut before the procedure. So when she woke up from the anesthesia, she looked just as good as she would soon feel.
And her rescuers couldn’t be happier that she made it through.
“She is the SWEETEST little pie,” Hall wrote on Facebook. “Even through all of this pain, she is just precious.”
You can see Solene’s new look here:
Solene’s still recovering from her surgery, but she should be feeling better soon. In the meantime, she’s looking for a foster home, where she can focus on healing and eventually finding a forever family.
And although Hall still struggles to understand how someone could leave such a precious and vulnerable pup alone in a park, she’s relieved knowing that Solene’s tragic past is now behind her.
“She is already feeling so much better, and seeing that light coming back into her eyes makes every bit of worry, every tear, and every moment of begging for help worth it,” Hall wrote on Facebook. “[S]he gets her second chance.”
