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By Jack Beresford
Senior Reporter
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A dog who was abandoned in the most distressing of conditions has undergone an incredible transformation with the help and support of his foster carer.
Kayla Soots and her husband have fostered multiple dogs through the North Carolina non-profit Billie's Buddies, but she'd never encountered a canine in as bad a shape as Vinny was when he was first picked up by Charlotte Animal Care and Control.
"They found Vinny tied to a fence with probably the worst case of mange I've ever seen," Soots told Newsweek. "He was so tiny and in so much pain. His poor body was completely covered in mange and open wounds. You couldn't even touch or hold him without getting blood all over your clothes."
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Soots was travelling back from a four-day bachelorette weekend when she saw a video of Vinny on Facebook. "The second my plane landed I went to the shelter to see if I could break him out," she said.
Foster carers play a crucial role in helping dogs get adopted. A 2018 study from the Journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science found that just 15 minutes of one-on-one petting was enough to boost the overall wellbeing of a shelter pet.
A stay with a foster carer provides that boost on a much more significant scale. It's a chance for shelter dogs to be loved and cared for in a way that resources otherwise would not allow. That care then gives them the confidence to come out of their shell and, in time, get adopted.
Soots says a mixture of overbreeding and animal abuse has left shelters in Charlotte facing a "major crisis."
"There's very little accountability for irresponsible pet ownership, which means hundreds of dogs each week are pumped at the shelter," she said. "The shelter does their best to adopt these dogs out, but the sad reality is way more come in there then is room and too many have to be euthanized each year."
Vinny's was a different story though. From the moment Soots and her husband brought him home, it was clear that he needed one thing more than anything else—"love."
"We brought him home and he was so pitiful and just wanted to be held and snuggled for about five days," she said.
Once Vinny felt safe and secure in his new surroundings, his confidence reemerged and Soots set to work on his physical rehabilitation. "We started on medicated baths and slowly but surely his beautiful black and white coat started coming in and his puppy crazies started coming out," she said.
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As Soots nursed Vinny back to health, with regular treatments, cuddles and his own set of sweaters to keep him warm while his fur grew back, she wondered "if he ever knew love before," but promised he would "never long for it again." It's a pledge that she stayed true to.
"Vinny is now happily in his forever home with the best couple and has an older doggy brother," she said. "He goes on lots of trail walks, visits coffee shops on the weekends and still wears sweaters."
Soots hopes Vinny's story shows people "there is always goodness in the world."
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