Earlier this month, dog rescuer Sloane Quealy got an urgent email.
She learned that 40 dogs — all Belgian Malinois or German shepherd mixes — had been rescued from an apartment nearby in Queens, New York, and the Animal Care Centers of NYC needed help placing them.
The dogs had all been living in a tiny apartment without proper care, socialization or access to the outdoors.
A staffer at the ACC reached out to Quealy, the cofounder of Zion’s Mission Animal Rescue, who ultimately decided they could step up to take 10 dogs.
But when Quealy arrived at the ACC in Queens to collect one of the rescues — a 2-year-old German shepherd-Belgian Malinois mix named Sammie — she couldn’t believe what she saw.
“When they opened the door [to his kennel], my heart just broke for him,” Quealy said. “Just the look in his eyes; he just looked so defeated. He was trembling a little bit, and they said he hadn’t moved.”
Since Sammie was too terrified to walk on his own, Quealy and the ACC staff had to get creative with how to move a 75-pound dog to her car.
They decided to use a heavy blanket as a hoisting device for his back legs, and someone else had to pull him up from his stomach. They fetched a cart and placed Sammie on it to wheel him to Quealy’s car.
He was too big for it, and he hung off the edge, but it was the only way to get him there.
“The dog just laid there; he did nothing,” Quealy said. “He didn’t react at all. He was just so, so broken, you know? I almost burst into tears.”
When they got to the car, Sammie was reluctant to get inside. It took three people to hoist him into the back seat. Little did he know at first that in the front seat was one of the puppies from the rescue in a carrier.
Quealy says Sammie was pleased to hear the puppy in the front seat of the car, and this perked him up for a moment, as he peered from the back seat to see what was going on.
Still, he was withdrawn, and by the time he got to the veterinarian for his neuter appointment, they were back to square one.
Despite a lot of love and attention from the veterinary staff, Sammie was still shaking in a corner while he waited to leave.
So, it must have been a welcome surprise when he arrived at a day care facility called Dawg House in Danbury, Connecticut, to work with a special trainer named Jess Roscetti. The five puppies from the rescue were already there.
By this point, though, Quealy was beginning to wonder if maybe Sammie’s legs were atrophied from not moving in the apartment for so long. As soon as they carried him into the training facility, they sat him down near water, hoping he’d head toward it.
It was then that the puppies, who’d been outside running in the yard, came zooming inside toward Sammie.
“One puppy stayed with [Sammie], and his little tail wagged,” Quealy says. “And then he started walking and, like, hobbling around the puppies, and they ended up going and drinking together. Then he laid down again, and he let out, like, the biggest sigh. And I almost burst into tears, because he knows he’s safe now.”
Sammie started to get curious about the outside too — he’d walk to the door and look around.
“Then finally, he came out into the yard, made a little quick circle and went back in. He did that twice more,” Quealy said. “But then the following morning, he was already using the bathroom outside and bopping around with [the puppies], and he hasn’t sat down since.”
Quealy is so proud of Sammie and the progress that he’s made in less than a week.
“His demeanor is so different. Now he has confidence,” she said. “I swear he’s smiling; he’s happy. He has a light in his eye that he didn’t have before. The difference in his face is just absolutely incredible, you know, like, it’s night and day. And he isn’t broken; he was just bruised.”
Sammie and his friends will live at Dawg House for at least a month to decompress and learn new skills, and Sammie is making fabulous progress, according to Roscetti.
“Sammie is coming out of his shell and approaching me to be loved,” she said. “He will come up from behind me and just barely touch the back of my knee with his nose to tell me he’s there and would like some pets.”
“I’m taking [all the dogs] outside and letting them feel the grass and watch the cars drive by and meet a couple strange people,” she added. “But they are already blossoming. I am really proud of them.”
Zion’s Mission is already taking adoption applications and will adopt out to experienced pet parents who already have a dog at home, since these pups need socialization and a buddy. Adopters should have experience with Belgian Malinois, German shepherds or a similar breed, since these canine kiddos require a lot of exercise and care. A yard is ideal, and adopters should live in the New York City tri-state area.
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