We had no idea how long she had been suffering with the bucket stuck on her head. It was rapidly deteriorating and we knew we absolutely could not leave her like that. Luckily, one of our volunteers was there with a net and was able to catch her.
She was very docile once we got her out, and we packed her into a kennel and convoyed down to my house. We had to figure out how to get the bucket off her head, so we had one volunteer holding the bucket and another holding her back, but it came off pretty fast. She basically walked to the corner of the garage and just laid down, not interested in interacting with us. Luckily, besides being extremely dehydrated, she was in pretty good health.
She went into foster care and our veterinarian gave us the all-clear. For a long time at her foster’s home, she just stayed in the bathroom. Some of the struggles that Winnie had at the beginning were just really being unsure of her surroundings. Eventually, she realized dog beds are comfortable and discovered couches, and was like, “Oh no, this is better.”
It took time for her to learn that people are okay because she wants to interact with them but is still so unsure. She has a cold wariness about her, but in her foster home with other animals, she’s into fitness, animals, receiving love, and attention from people. The foster really worked with her to slowly get her out of her shell and have her come out and interact with people.
Eventually, she started seeking human interaction from people she was comfortable with. We knew that whatever home we had to send her to needed to be the right one because she still was dealing with healing and trusting people. She was in our care for about two and a half months before we flew her off the island. When we picked up Winnie, she was as far back in the crate as she possibly could be. She was very, very terrified and didn’t even know how to play with dogs. But she and Maple really started warming up to each other, and they formed an attachment that I don’t see in any of our other dogs. Winnie watched Maple to see how she behaved with everybody, and slowly she’s building that trust with people and other dogs. She is definitely part of the pack now, and she’s come so far.
