Shelter Takes In Dog Found With Heartbreaking Note Saying Owner Couldn’t Feed her

An animal shelter in Wilmington, Delaware, has welcomed a sweet, skinny dog found wandering the property with a heartbreaking letter.

“Please take care of Sky,” reads the handwritten note, seen in a photo posted to Facebook by the Delaware Humane Association on Thursday. “She is 6 years old and friendly. I couldn’t take care of her. I became homeless and couldn’t feed her. She is not sick, just hungry. Very friendly. Please find her a home please.”

The note was inside a bag that Sky was wearing when shelter workers found her.

“She really is super sweet, but quite shy at times,” Delaware Humane development and marketing director Greg Munson told HuffPost in an email. He added that Sky has been “very interested” in other dogs she’s encountered.

Director of animal care Kerry Flanagan Bruni told Delaware Online that despite being underweight and having fleas, Sky is “doing great” and awaiting lab results testing for possible parasites.

The shelter urged people in its Facebook post to avoid negative comments about the person who left Sky at the shelter, noting, “We can’t imagine this was easy for her former owner.”

Munson told HuffPost that the shelter doesn’t have any idea at this point who the owner might have been, though it put some “feelers” out at local homeless shelters.

He added that if the owner had spoken with shelter staff, it’s possible they would have been able to help, noting the organization has a program in place geared at helping people keep their pets.

The shelter said in a Facebook post on Saturday that if staff hears from the owner, they “would be willing to work with them to reunite them, but it would depend on the situation and the owner’s circumstances.”

Sky is now on a five-day hold at the shelter, required by law for animals that show up as strays or with no clear owner. DHA also reported her as “found” to Delaware Animal Services on the off-chance she was a stolen dog. 

After the hold period is up on Monday, Sky will be taken in by a foster family. The shelter is accepting adoption applications for Sky, but Munson noted that she’ll have to “gain about 20 pounds” before she can be spayed and officially adopted. That said, the shelter has numerous other animals up for adoption, including several cats that have been in the organization’s care for more than a year.

Luckily for Sky, it sounds like she’ll have no trouble ultimately finding a home.

“There’s a lot of interest for sure,” Munson said.