“Trapped in a crate while the winter temperature continued to drop, Rosabella didn’t have much time left,” Ruff Start Rescue explained on Facebook. The female dog had been left outside in an alley in Minnesota’s winter weather a few weeks before Christmas. Stuck in a cage, Rosabella had no escape.
Rosabella was found purely by chance after a Ruff Start foster caregiver happened to be driving through an alley in St.Paul. The emaciated and frail Pit Bull was trying her best to stay warm by curling into a ball but she was losing her fight with the cold.
“She wrapped herself as tight as she could to repel the frigid weather seeping through the wire kennel, but her emaciated body could only do so much to protect her,” her rescuers described.
But after being picked up by the rescue volunteer, Rosabella was brought to Ruff Start Rescue’s vet team for examination.
“After her arrival into our care, a medical exam revealed signs of neglect throughout Rosabella’s body. She has sores and splayed feet that suggest she’s been in a kennel for the majority of her life. And she’s only 19 pounds when she should weigh at least 45 pounds.”
Rosabella immediately went into foster are with Breanna Jensen. Breanna had been intending to take a short break from fostering over the holidays, but she could not refuse giving Rosabella care.
“I don’t think she would have last 24 hours, 48 hours max probably,” Breanna of Rosabella’s fortunate rescue. “For as thin as she was, and the conditions, the conditions she was in outside, she would have frozen to death.”
Within a short time of being in a safe, loving home, Rosabella began gaining much needed weight and enjoying the company of Breanna’s dogs.
“She’s playful and she’s fun. She likes to run around the yard. She’s getting along really well with our other dogs. She is just the sweetest, little girl in the whole world,” Breanna told CBS Minnesota . “Our little Christmas miracle.”
Ruff Start added on Facebook, “Besides the terrible circumstances Rosabella endured, she is so loving and beyond resilient.”
A month after her rescue and Rosabella had gained more weight and was in good health and spirits, healthy enough to go up for adoption.