“As soon as we reached out our hands for him to sniff, he got up off his trash bag bed and approached us.”
While touring Kentucky’s bourbon distilleries to escape the chilly weather, a couple from St. Louis noticed something moving in a pile of trash by the side of an otherwise deserted road close to the Maker’s Mark factory.
In Katharine Kulka’s words to Kentucky Humane Society (KHS), “We thought he may belong to a family on one of the nearby farms and has just escaped his fence,” they were reluctant to act when they first saw him.
However, the temperature was in the teens, and they couldn’t stop thinking about him during their stop at the distillery, so they returned because they knew they had to help.
Curled up on the trash bag, he seemed so lonesome and cold, Katharine remarked. It was clear that the dog was attempting to stay warm by resting on the black bag in the sunlight.
He was obviously anxious for interaction when the couple walked up to him. He rose from his trash bag bed and came toward us as soon as we held our hands out for him to sniff, Katharine recalled. “Despite appearing cautious, his tail immediately began to wag the moment we petted his head! He wanted to cuddle up straight on our laps and was quite lovely.
Who knows how long it had been since the dog had a real meal, but it was clear that he was very cold and that his ribs were showing. The couple then placed a blanket in the back seat of their car and took their dog.
He was really lethargic for the first 20 minutes or so, but as he warmed up, Katharine observed, “the heat seemed to invigorate him.” He stood up and turned to face the windows.
Even though it was the Sunday before the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, they were relieved to find that KHS was open. As the dog, whom they named Whiskey, arrived there, it was clear this was a totally new beginning for the poor pup.
“We don’t know if Whiskey was abandoned or was a stray,” Andrea Blair, PR & marketing director for KHS, told The Dodo. “He was found on a cold day with temperatures in the teens and the wind chill in the single digits. He was not microchipped, not neutered, no tags and no collar.”y
And as it would turn out, Whiskey wouldn’t have to wait in the shelter for very long before a family recognized him as a perfect addition to their home.
This week, after just nine days at the shelter, where he was fed nutritious puppy food so he could gain his strength, Whiskey got to go home.
A family with four boys happily embraced Whiskey as their new dog — and his joy is obvious.
Now the snow-covered outdoors isn’t a place where he has to struggle to survive but a landscape he can look at out the window of his forever home, with the boys he’ll watch grow up.
“He will never be left out in the cold or go hungry again,” KHS said.
