Meet Hank. Earlier this month, this rescued German shepherd traveled 11 miles across Memphis to be back with his original foster mom Rachel Kauffman. And now Streetdog Foundation has launched a crowd-sourcing campaign to pay for Hank’s medical care.
The story goes something like this: In late October, Streetdog Foundation volunteer Tiffany Ford saw Hank’s picture on the Memphis Animal Services (MAS) website. He’d been brought in as a stray and was severely underweight. Another animal advocate Rachel Kauffman opened her home as a temporary foster home, and Hank was relocated there from MAS. Save Our Shepherds, another rescue group, lined Hank up with a possible permanent home.
Hank quickly began bonding with Kauffman, but after a few days, he was scheduled to move to his longer-term foster home, where he would be temperament-tested since the possible permanent adopter had requested a calm dog.
Hank’s GoFundMe page tells what happened next:
Two days after he arrived, his foster mom left to run some errands. When she returned, her back door was open and Hank was gone. Hank somehow managed to open the door himself and dig out under the fence! We knew he was smart, but wow!
Hank’s foster immediately took her dog and began to look for him. She sent a message to her friends at Streetdog Foundation and Save Our Shepherds and a search crew quickly formed. The first crew arrived on the scene 20 minutes after being notified that he was missing. Within an hour, 10 people, including his first foster, were also looking for him. Volunteers were posting on Facebook, Twitter, and Next Door, and driving and walking around the neighborhood. We searched until dark. A notification from some neighbors nearby led us back out later that night to High Point Terrace and Galloway Golf Course, but we did not find him. For the next 2 days there were more than 400 shares of our social media posts and the administrators for Lost and Found Pets of the Mid-South joined in to help us find Hank. While we drove around, they monitored sightings and relayed information to us via text message.
Then, on the night of November 3rd, a Streetdog volunteer happened to spot Hank when she was driving to meet some friends. She followed him right to Kauffman’s doorstep. Seems Hank had decided Kauffman’s home would be his forever home. Volunteers later tracked his path, based on the various sightings that had been reported, and determined he’d traveled 11 miles back to Kauffman’s house.
Kauffman has agreed to let Hank stay, but he has quite a bit of medical expenses. Shortly after he was freed, Hank had a vet check-up. He was 68 pounds, about 20 pounds underweight for his breed. And he was heartworm positive. Now Streetdog is hoping to raise $1,000 for Hank’s medical care. Any extra funds raised will be used to treat other dogs rescued by the Streetdog Foundation.
