On 11 April 2022, a heartbreaking report came in about a little puppy abandoned in a dumpster field in Bucha, Ukraine. Andreeva Kristina from Irkutsk, Russia drove overnight to get there in the next morning and finally found the puppy.

The baby was around 1.5 months old and had more than one trouble, including enteritis and worm invasion. The people said that they saw owners leaving their puppies there when migrating out of Ukraine, hoping they could survive. But for this baby, it was challenging as she couldn’t move due to hind leg fractures and worm growth. She cried in pain, but her temperature was stable thanks to the blanket left with her.

However, X-rays showed that she had problems with her legs, and she was too weak to undergo surgery yet. Cather, as they called her, cried when she saw the people, scared of being abandoned again. She also showed the itchiness from fleas but couldn’t use her leg. After taking a medicine bath to remove all the fleas, Cather immediately showed good behavior, even to strangers. She tried to reach out to them, which might have impacted her vain in her tiny legs. So, they started talking to Cather, and amazingly she seemed to understand what they told her.

They started teaching her how to walk again and got her new toys, which she loved.

Cather was allowed to go outside under the sun, but she still had a lot of challenges when running outside. She needed to undergo another surgery to fix her legs and to make friends with Bobo, another paralyzed dog. She even made friends with Leila, the cat. The first day she got out of the bandage and walked on her own, and now she’s allowed to play with others in their center. But her best friends surprisingly were Bobo and Leila. The journey of Cather, the abandoned puppy, was full of challenges, but with love and care, she was able to overcome them and find happiness again.