A woman from Mississippi, United States, gave an "unwanted" dog another life after she saved it when it was already mid-way through the euthanasia process. Tracy Bulino, the owner of Erin Regan Animal Sanctuary, revealed the incredible story behind rescuing Nikki, a 10-month-old dog, last month to Newsweek. She told the outlet that the dog shelter had already given it the drug and was waiting for it to take effect.
"In Nikki's case, the shelter staff had given her the acetylpromazine and she was in her crate for the sedative to take effect. In the meantime, one of the shelter employees I had been communicating with the previous week called me and asked if I could take her, because if not they were going to euthanize her," she told Newsweek.
Ms Bulino stated that she had no details about the dog and the shelter waited for her to come and get Nikki. She continued, "At that point, the woman I spoke to didn't know anything about the dog, not even gender or weight. She was just trying to get her out of there. When I stated that I would come get her, they held her for me and did not finish with the final injection. I had to carry her out of the shelter to my car because she kept falling over and couldn't walk from the acetylpromazine."
As per the woman, euthanasia is a two-step process. However, she rescued the dog before the shelter injected the second drug to stop its heart. "Our local shelters currently require appointments to surrender pets, but when Nikki was dropped off, that person did not have an appointment. They don't know for sure if he was her owner. They told him if he left her, they would have to euthanize her because they didn't have space. They suggested he hold her or try to rehome her, but he left her there, knowing that would be the outcome."
Ms Bulino said that the dog "would sleep, wake up and try to walk around a bit, fall over and nap some more, repeat". It slept through the night and was cheerful the next day. She named the dog "Nikki" as she was saved "in the nick of time". Ms Bulino stated that it would be spayed and be available for adoption in a couple of weeks.
The animal sanctuary shared the post on Facebook and people were thankful to the woman for her kindness.
"God bless you ma'am," said a user.
A second person stated, "I'll never understand why people are the way they are. So thankful you were able to get them."
Another person wrote, "It hurts that there are heartless people. Thank you for having a big heart."
