Less than a month old and alone at 5°F (-15°C), he was hiding under a car near a railroad until his bark gave him away. On the long drive home, he fell asleep in our hands.
His name is a nod to the actor Tom Holland, and to how he fell asleep in the palms of our hands on the long ride home.
Watch the video12:26Abandoned Puppy Was Freezing To Death and Barely Surviving until This Happened · February 12, 2022 · Open on YouTube ↗
Somewhere near a railroad, an abandoned puppy was out in the winter cold, with little chance of getting through it alone. All we had was an urgent report that people had seen the puppy there. The place was 93 miles (150 km) away, and the roads that led to it were icy and covered in snow. We set out anyway.
At the railroad, the long search began. We did not know what the puppy looked like, whether it was a he or a she, or even where to start. The tracks were lined with tank wagons, and everything was covered in snow. So we set out on foot and searched the whole area.
Then, at last, we heard barking. We thought it might be coming from inside a house, and we walked around that house three times. He was not inside but under a car, where he had been hiding all along. We had already passed that car several times, and it was only because he barked that we found him at all.
Up close, he was tiny. He was less than a month old, and he was freezing, alone outside at 5°F (-15°C). People had been seeing him near the railroad for a week, and he was most likely a stray. We lifted him out of the snow, held him against us, and told him he was safe now.
We hurried back to the car and warmed it up for him, and on the long drive home he found his own place to rest, in the palms of our hands. He was calm and well behaved, and he even seemed to enjoy the road. Then he fell asleep. As far as we knew, he had been alone all his life until that day.
When we got home, we decided a bath had to come first, and after his nap he had the energy for it. He was incredibly dirty, with flea bites, possibly lice, and a coat covered in oil from the trains he must have been hiding under. We washed him gently, five times over, and although the oil was hard to remove, he was not afraid of the water and behaved well throughout. After a final rinse, he was clean at last.
Once he was dry, he had his first dinner with us in the living room. Our next stop was the vet. A body check found a small hernia, which would heal over time, and a sample under the microscope settled the question of the lice. There were fleas, but no lice.
After the check-up, he fell asleep in our hands again, just as he had on the long drive home. The day we found him, he had been hiding under a car in the snow by the railroad. Now he slept in our arms. When we filmed his story, we were looking for a family for Palm Holland.
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