It was a blisteringly hot August day as Lake Highlands neighbor Teresa Gant and her husband drove to her office building.
Photo courtesy of Teresa Gant
She wasn’t going to work — it was a Saturday. Gant was on another mission.
In the months leading up to Aug. 12, 2024, Gant and her coworkers noticed an emaciated, sickly looking young German shepherd constrained by a collar too tight for comfort wandering around a vacant lot next door. Colleagues would bring offerings of food and water, but it seemed as though nothing would bring the 1-year-old shepherd inside.
Temperatures continued to climb, and the dog’s condition worsened with each passing day.
Gant — who says she has always wanted a German shepherd — knew the situation was reaching a breaking point.
“I knew he was out there, and he was going to die if nobody got to him,” Gant says. “People at my office tried to get him, and they didn’t have any luck. So I decided I wanted to try to get him.”
When she arrived at the lot, the dog could be seen toward the far side of the property. Gant crawled underneath the link fence, set out water, threw some food in his direction, sat down and talked to the dog. For 45 minutes, she tried to gain his trust as he sat in the distance. As she got up to leave, the dog pranced towards her, stopped and stared before eventually going back to the shade.
After returning home in defeat, she couldn’t stop thinking about the stray.
“I begged my son to go back, and he didn’t want to, but I finally got him to go,” she says. “I couldn’t get him out of my head, because I knew how he was starving, and he wouldn’t have lived. I mean, he was only 44 pounds.”
This time, she wasn’t leaving without him.
Within 10 minutes of arriving, the dog ran to Gant and rolled over on his back. He found his way to the car, and eventually a new home.
“I was excited. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe I did it,” Gant says. “I’ve never literally rescued an animal like that.”
Kobi, as he was named by his new family, was in relatively good health aside from malnourishment. A trip to the vet discovered no fleas or disease, and a bath the next day restored his lush black and gold coat to beauty.
Gant says Kobi has fit in great with his new family, although there has been a bit of a learning curve to living indoors. He especially enjoys a good bone, barks to excess on occasion and has forged a civil relationship with the family cat.
For Gant, finding Kobi was a dream come true.
“Every time he eats and drinks water, it just makes my heart happy because he wasn’t getting any water, and he was starving,” she says. “But just knowing that he trusted me and I’m his person, you could tell that I’m his person. So it’s very heartwarming to me.”
