In May, Stephanie Smith-Justus received a call from a concerned neighbor. She had just seen a dog that urgently needed help and she didn’t know what to do.
Smith-Justus, who works for her local city shelter and also runs the Buchanan County Humane Society in Virginia, grabbed her husband and ran to the end of the street, where the neighbor said she had seen the dog.
After touring the wooded area, she was ready to give up. But at that moment her husband found the dog lying in a thicket of weeds at the end of the road. “He said, ‘Stephanie, I don’t think he’s going to live,’” Smith-Justus told The Dodo.
Buchanan County Humane Society
Buchanan County Humane Society
“At first it looked like he had been scalded,” Smith-Justus said. At just 4 months old, the puppy suffered a severe case of demodectic mange, which he probably caught from his mother. “It was very grave,” she explained. “Imagine a second-degree burn.”
Buchanan County Humane Society
Buchanan County Humane Society
As luck would have it, a veterinarian had just moved into a house on the same street, and Smith-Justus and her husband picked up the little dog and ran there. “We didn’t even knock on the door,” she said. “I just ran at his house with him.”
The vet took one look at the dog, who was later named Watkins after the street where he was found, and knew he was bad. “She told me she was dying,” Smith-Justus said.
Buchanan County Humane Society
Buchanan County Humane Society
They rushed him to the veterinary clinic, where they realized that his skin was just the beginning. He had been shot repeatedly with a pellet gun. He weighed only 34 pounds and had gone so long without eating that his intestines collapsed.
Buchanan County Humane Society
Buchanan County Humane Society
And because he was so malnourished, his ankles had not developed properly. “His tendons had lost their elasticity,” Smith-Justus explained. “He couldn’t stand on the pads of his paws. He would let himself fall on his wrists… it was simply painful to watch him walk.”
The scabies had taken such a hold that his little body was about to fail. “He was just oozing fluids,” Smith-Justus said, explaining that there was an 8-inch wet spot surrounding him wherever he sat. “He was so swollen.”
Buchanan County Humane Society
Buchanan County Humane Society
Smith-Justus was heartbroken over Watkins’ condition and she wanted to save him, but her main priority was to do the kindest thing.
“If he’s that bad, if he needs to be put down, I understand, but I want to do what’s best for him,” she told the vet. “And she said, ‘Let’s save him.’”
But it wasn’t easy. Shortly after being rushed to the clinic, Watkins’ intestines twisted and he was rushed into surgery, which the vet did not expect him to emerge from.
Buchanan County Humane Society
Buchanan County Humane Society
“She told me he wouldn’t live and to say goodbye, and I did,” Smith-Justus said. “And the next morning, he was strong.”
But a few weeks later he got worse again. He stopped eating, dropped from 34 pounds to 17, and had to have a feeding tube implanted, which he then bit. “It was like a comedy of errors,” Smith-Justus said of his recovery.
Buchanan County Humane Society
Buchanan County Humane Society
Watkins spent a total of 119 days living in the vet’s office and, briefly, in the ICU at Virginia Tech. And as he slowly fought back to health after his difficult start in life, something equally poignant began to happen.
Buchanan County Humane Society
Buchanan County Humane Society
Smith-Justus began to receive an outpouring of support from people around the world who had heard Watkins’ story and wanted to encourage him on his road to recovery. Blankets and dog beds began to arrive from all over the United States and even from abroad; one family even came from several states to visit him.
Today, a Facebook page created to document his story has more than 12,000 followers.
Buchanan County Humane Society
Buchanan County Humane Society
“His photographs of him and his story must have resonated with them the same way he did with me,” Smith-Justus said.
And thanks to Watkins’ team of supporters, and his determined spirit, he was finally able to return home with Smith-Justus on July 11.
Buchanan County Humane Society
Humane Society of C
