Senior Dog Left for Dead in Freezing Cold Canal Having Lost All Hope

A senior dog found abandoned in a California canal in freezing conditions has been given a second chance at life. When 12-year-old Spitz mix Fritz came to San Francisco's Muttville Senior Dog Rescue in March 2023 he was in a very bad way. "He was found by Maria Harrington in an irrigation canal with his collar embedded into his skin," Patty Stanton from Muttville told Newsweek. Harrington had been walking her dogs on the levee above the canal when her dogs barked and alerted her to the presence of Fritz down below. But despite her dogs' barking and her own yelling, he did not react. "She thought he may be dead, maybe he was deaf," Stanton said. Given his situation, Fritz might simply have just given up hope. But Harrington wasn't about to give up on him.

She tossed a rock in his direction and finally Fritz lifted his head. He was alive and he needed help. Having put out the word on a local animal Facebook page, Harrington, with the help of another dog-loving couple, were able to mount a rescue operation of sorts to get Fritz out of the canal before the cold temperatures of the day dropped even further at night. Despite already having four dogs of her own, Harrington set Fritz up with a comfy bed and warm space to sleep in her garage. She bathed him and took him on walks which offered clues to what his life before was like. "He was slow and arthritic and had rough elbows which indicated to her that he'd been kept on a hard surface prior to his rescue," Stanton said. Eventually, a friend told her to contact Muttville, where founder Sherri Franklin immediately said yes to taking Fritz on. "This dog's story of neglect and rescue touched my heart, we had to give him a new beginning," Franklin told Newsweek. Fritz's intake notes read: "Given that this senior mutt has a soft personality, we believe he will be happiest in a quiet, mature home environment. Fritz is such a sweetheart, and we want him to be as comfortable as possible." An initial assessment highlighted yet more evidence of neglect. Fritz was struggling with moderate to severe dental disease. He was neutered, got the dental work done that he so desperately needed and was put on a course of medication to address his arthritis. A new Muttville foster, Kristin, stepped up soon after with the promise she would "help him heal."

Stanton recalled how, in her initial application to become a foster carer, Kristin had cited her belief "every dog has value and love to give and deserves to experience security, ease, and peace." Kristin's previous dog, Oxford, had lived into old age, so she knew the challenges and joy that lay ahead. What she may not have known was the impact a foster carer like her can have. Shelter dogs crave attention and with good reason. A 2018 study published in Applied Animal Behavior Science found that just 15 minutes of one-on-one petting was enough to boost the emotional wellbeing of a shelter dog. Fritz was given a glow-up which included his very first grooming session followed by a photoshoot. His profile went up on the Muttville website with hopes high that he would find a forever home. But Stanton admits "hardly any applicants came forward." That might have been a problem but, as she said, it quickly became apparent that "someone was falling in love" with this senior pooch: Kristin, his foster carer. "Knowing that he was found in a ditch breaks my heart into a million pieces. His spirit is so pure, joyful, and kind. I'm trying to give him all the experiences he has likely never had," she said.

Soon it was made official, with Kristin adopting Fritz to his first happy forever home. Though he's slowing down in his old age, and has become a little blind, Stanton is happy to report that Fritz is a "spicy and spirited" senior with plenty of life left in him yet. "He is so deserving of love and completely opened up immediately when I brought him home," Kristin said. "He has definitely had a LOVE-filled past year, it's been a blessing and an honor to give that to Fritz. Senior dogs are just other-worldly angels of some sort!"