A dog was roaming the streets with her favorite toy, after the death of her owner

Residents in Detroit, Michigan were used to seeing a female German Shepherd roaming their neighborhood happily wagging her tail from time to time.

The old dog, later named Nikki, always walked faithfully by her owner’s side, enthusiastically greeting all passers-by. Until one day, she was seen wandering the streets all alone.

“Unfortunately, her owner passed away,” explains Gail Montgomery, director of the Almost Home Animal Rescue League. “And that’s how she started walking around on her own with her stuffed doll,” she tells The Dodo.

In her grief, sweet Nikki clung to a stuffed toy for comfort, which she reverently carried wherever she went and refused to put down for any reason.

“Normally, a stray dog ​​won’t keep a stuffed animal. He basically doesn’t put anything in his mouth, he’s just looking for food,” adds Gail Montgomery. “But that was her safety.”

Nikki roamed the neighborhood alone for weeks, relying only on the kindness of strangers. Many residents gave her food and water while looking for the right organization to help her, until they came in contact with South Lyon Murphy Lost Animal Recovery.

After a few failed attempts, the rescue team finally managed to catch her. But even when they put her in their van, she refused to part with her precious toy.

Shortly after her rescue, she walked into Almost Home Animal Rescue League headquarters with her favorite doll, and while a team of vets examined Nikki, her new friends at the shelter took it upon themselves to care for her toy.

“It was very dirty, almost torn. We washed it, sewed it up and gave it back to her,” says Gail Montgomery.

Vets determined Nikki had heartworm disease and other internal problems, and found plastic bags, twigs and bones in her stomach.

Nikki couldn’t wait to hug her toy again, which she did as soon as it was handed to her. “She was so weak, she just fell asleep on him,” he explains.

Her life today has nothing to do with her troubled and sad image back then. “She was very stressed,” Gail Montgomery says of Nikki’s days before her rescue. “Her body wasn’t working properly because she had been living on the streets for so long.”

Now, eating a healthy diet of chicken and rice and being cared for by her foster family, Nikki has begun to recover physically and emotionally.

“She doesn’t even need her teddy anymore. She constantly hugs her adoptive parents. “She still sleeps on it sometimes, but she’s not obsessed with it like she was in Detroit when she was driving around all alone,” she adds.

With information from lifo.gr