About a year ago, residents of a Kansas City neighborhood spotted a severely matted pup wandering the streets all alone. Her fur was so thick and dirty that at first, they didn’t even recognize her as a dog.
“Community members spotted her but didn’t approach,
thinking she might be some kind of wild animal roaming around their neighborhood,” KC Pet Project wrote on Instagram.
Finally, a Good Samaritan figured out what was really going on and brought the suffering dog into KC Pet Project’s facility. The staff members were shocked. They’d seen matted dogs before, but this pup was on another level.
“She looked like a cotton ball with legs,” Abigail Anderson, a staff member at KC Pet Project, said in a video for The Dodo. “You actually couldn’t even see her legs, she was so matted.”
After the clinic staff examined the dog, whom they named Dolly, they got straight to work removing all of her excess fur. They also trimmed her nails, which were overgrown to the point of making it nearly impossible for her to walk.
“It took two-ish hours to clean her up,” Anderson said.
Dolly’s care team ended up removing 1.7 pounds of fur from her body. All of that matting must have felt like such a burden for such a tiny dog.
“She must have felt so relieved when this weight got off her back,” Anderson said.
Once Dolly was cleaned up, she had to start the long process of relearning how to walk. Without her fur weighing her down and her nails impeding her mobility, she had to start over from scratch.
“At first, she was pretty off-balance,” Anderson said. “[She was] used to the weight and pain changing her gait.”
As Dolly got stronger and stronger, the clinic staff were delighted to watch her get to experience simple pleasures for the first time in a long time. When Dolly went out into the sunshine and actually felt the warmth on her skin, it was clear she was deeply content.
“She really enjoyed the sunshine on that day,” Anderson said.
In the end, a team member at KC Pet Project ended up falling in love with Dolly and deciding to adopt her. She’s now fully settled into her new home and spends her days basking in all the sunshine she can get.
“Dolly is the happiest, sweetest pup, and we are thrilled with this outcome for her,” Anderson said. “She could not be more loved.”
