'Nearly dead' puppy in care after being found frozen in Manitoba

A five-week-old puppy snuggled lovingly into her new foster parent's beard only a few days after being found frozen in a community in Manitoba's Interlake area.

"I've never seen a puppy recover after being that cold," said Manitoba Underdogs Rescue executive director Jessica Hansen. "I thought she was going to pass away in our arms on the drive to Winnipeg. She was nearly dead."

Demi, a husky-shepherd mix, was found Sunday afternoon by someone in the community and brought to Manitoba Underdogs Rescue volunteers who were there on a routine visit to feed and pick up stray animals.

She was just so tiny and helpless. It broke our hearts.- Jessica Hansen

Demi was then rushed on a nearly three-hour drive to Winnipeg for emergency veterinary care.

"We snuggled her into the chest of one of our volunteers, wrapped her in heat packs and put some corn syrup on her gums to try and increase her energy levels," Hansen said about the trip back to Winnipeg.

"She was just so tiny and helpless. It broke our hearts."

Manitoba Underdogs volunteers work hard to build relationships in the communities they visit and have a policy of not identifying them, members say. Naming the communities could cast "a negative shadow on the kind people that live there and work so hard to give these animals a better life," the group says.

When Demi reached the vet in Winnipeg, her body temperature was so low it didn't even register on a thermometer, Hansen said.

"And that's after three hours of us doing everything we could to warm her."

She's was brought to the Winnipeg Animal Emergency Hospital where she was put into an incubator to get warm and recover.

"We hope her health problems will end there, but we honesty aren't sure. She was in really rough shape and it's a miracle she's alive," Hansen said, adding the Underdogs team expects her continued treatment to be expensive.

"We're asking our donors to please remember Demi and Manitoba Underdogs Rescue this holiday season," she said, noting Demi is one of many dogs in need of help.

"We brought two other dogs into our care on our trip yesterday and five more for other local rescues, but there are more out there in need of homes," Hansen said.

"We'd like to be able to bring more into care as temperatures drop and their situation gets even scarier, but that depends on our finances. We rely on donations from our generous supporters to allow us to help pups like Demi."

As for Demi, she was placed into the arms of her foster father on Tuesday afternoon. The puppy looked up with big eyes as he gave her a pat and marvelled at how small she was. 

"We never would have imagined that we would be getting her eventually into an adoptive home and running around like a typical puppy and playing," Hansen said. 

"It's quite a shock to the system to think that she's going to a foster home now and is going to be loved up and fed and kept warm everyday of her life."