Dog made us believe it was over and then bites Loreta multiple times!!!

Trojan was spotted by USC students Eden Weinblut and Lindsay Gibson, and they knew he needed help.

He was very hungry, but he was too scared to allow them to help him.
Loreta Frankonyte and I headed out right away; we were told that Lindsay was keeping an eye on him, and Eden was also heading toward the rescue location.

This rescue was tricky - a lot of students around, a nervous dog, a huge campus, noisy construction, and in an effort to keep him around, Lindsay kept feeding him, so by the time we got there, he wasn't really hungry anymore. Loreta rushed to the campus cafeteria to get a fresh cheeseburger - I hoped he wouldn't be able to resist that. 

The actual capture went smoothly, a simple textbook rescue 🤓👍

What we didn't know is that this Trojan horse was waiting for us to let our guard down so he could escape. In his first attempt to escape, he knocked Loreta to the ground, but she got back on her feet and managed to get a Lucky Leash around him (did you already get your own Lucky Leash?). Then he tried to trick us so we would let our guard down again, and when that didn't work, he tackled Loreta again and bit her multiple times - it cost her an arm and a leg (with puncture wounds).

Loreta (as you know) doesn't stop because of a bite and she managed to get him again. We had to change our tactics because this Trojan from USC knew he had to Fight on! Unfortunately, because he was fighting us, the snare and the leash got tangled and disrupted his ability to breathe. I almost made it to the building when he collapsed and Loreta quickly rearranged the leash around his neck so he wouldn't faint. Meanwhile, Eden and Lindsay ran all the way across the campus to the Hope For Paws rescue vehicle and got a large cage so we can secure him.

It was really cool to recruit two new rescuers on the spot and have them work so well with us!

If you can't volunteer with a rescue, please help us with a small donation 🙏 
 

The rest of the story is so interesting…

Trojan had such a sad look in his eyes, but I just didn't know what he was trying to tell me. He didn't have a collar; he didn't have a microchip, and every search online for someone who may be looking for him failed.

Loreta and I cleaned him up, but I didn't rush him to the hospital right away… he stayed with me for the rest of the day because I knew he needed some time to decompress. At CARES, he received medical treatment, and from there, he continued to his foster home with Foxy and the Hounds (their founder, Terri Fox, was the one who called me and told me about him).

It is very unusual for a rescued dog to be as sad as he was for two weeks, but then he got a lucky break! Lindsay Gibson (who joined us on this rescue) found out that he has an owner who is looking for him! 

We then learned that kids played with fireworks in the neighborhood. Trojan (whose real name is Frost) got so scared, he jumped over the fence and ran for his life!!! He ran so far that he didn't know how to get back home, and amazingly, he didn't get hit by a car (if you know downtown L.A, you know traffic is always busy).

Trojan found a safe haven at the safe USC campus where kind students shared their lunches and dinners with him, and the vegetation provided cover during the cold nights.

If it wasn't for Lindsay, the reunion would have never happened, and this brings me to the important lesson of microchipping your pets, and always having a collar with a name tag on. 4th of July is just around the corner, and you never want to be a part of the statistic of people who lost their pets and never found them again.

Please, please, please make it a priority to visit your vet and get it done, and on the way home, get your furbaby a new collar with a new name tag 😊

Oh, and Loreta is OK - she healed nicely and she will have a bunch of cool photos on her Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/xoxoloreta/

Thank you so much!

Eldad