Tyson Cash was making his usual morning rounds, collecting his canine clients on his pup bus to take them to doggy day care, when he noticed one of his regular dogs was accompanied by a pooch he had never seen before. “I was like, ‘That’s strange, they didn’t tell me they were getting another dog,’” said Cash, who runs Keller Creek Boarding and Grooming in Franklin County, Ga., with his wife.
Motley, a Labrador retriever who has been going to day care at Keller Creek for more than three years, usually waits for the bus on his front porch. On this particular morning, July 16, there was another Lab with him. Cash contacted Motley’s owners to ask them if they got a new dog, and they told him no, but there was a stray Lab that had been wandering the area for a few days.
Residents were feeding him and sometimes letting him spend the night. Motley trotted over to the pup bus, and the stray dog followed him. When Motley hopped on, the second dog tried to do the same.
“He wanted on the bus badly. He was doing everything he could to get on with the other dogs,” said Cash, explaining that he couldn’t let the stray dog on the bus. “I didn’t know about his vaccination status.
I didn’t know if he was on flea and tick prevention,” said Cash. “I didn’t want to jeopardize all the other dogs.” He asked his wife to post a photo of the dog on Facebook to try to track down his owner.
Then, as Cash drove off in the pup bus, the abandoned yellow Lab gave chase. “I felt horrible about leaving him,” said Cash, who posted a video on Facebook of the dog sprinting alongside his bus. “I was concerned about him,” said Cash, adding that - despite already having nine dogs at home - he considered keeping the stranded pup if no one came forward.
“I would have figured out a way.” But he didn’t have to. Sadie Peace - whose 2-year-old yellow Lab, Nellie, goes to day care at Keller Creek - stumbled upon the Facebook post and said she felt gutted watching the deserted dog.
“To see a dog so desperate to catch a ride was very heartbreaking,” she said. “I thought, I’ve got to reach out and see if anybody has a home for this dog. If not, I want him,” Peace said.
“I had been wanting a friend for Nellie.” She got in touch with Cash, who gave Peace the contact information of a woman who said she had been housing and feeding the abandoned dog and calling him Waylon. The woman’s two female dogs were in heat, Peace said, so Waylon could no longer stay there.
Peace and her boyfriend went to pick up the dog that day. “He just walked right up to us with these big beautiful brown eyes and stared at us for a second,” said Peace, 21, adding that she decided to continue calling him Waylon. “He fell right in love with us as we did him.
” When Peace took Waylon home, he was in rough shape. “All his ribs were showing. He had fleas and ticks all over him,” she said.
“You could just tell he had not been taken care of very well and he had been roaming around for, I guess, weeks.” She took him to the vet, and they discovered he had a microchip. Waylon’s previous owner accepted a transfer of ownership to Peace and her boyfriend, she said, adding that the microchip company would not give her any further information about Waylon’s original owner.
Over the past month, Waylon - who is believed to be 2 to 3 years old - has adjusted well to his new home and his dog sibling, Nellie. “They both sleep in bed with us every single night,” Peace said. “They are best friends.
They follow each other around everywhere.” Waylon is coming out of his shell more each day. “He is a huge teddy bear,” Peace said.
“He loves to cuddle. He wants belly rubs all the time, and he’s super well-mannered.” Peace believes Waylon was abused, as he has scars around his neck, and he often cowers in fear when people move quickly or abruptly toward him.
“We’ve been showing him that we’re not going to hurt him in any way and that he doesn’t have to be scared around us,” she said. “I’m glad it was us that found him,” Peace continued. “It was just meant to be.
” Waylon’s wish to board Keller Creek’s pup bus was finally granted about two weeks ago, once he was up to date on all his vaccinations. He now attends the day care program about once a week. “I knew if I could get him that we would give him the best home with a comfortable place to sleep,” Peace said.
“And that one day he could get on that bus that he so desperately wanted to catch.” Cash said he is thrilled to officially welcome Waylon to Keller Creek. “He did great.
He fit right in with the group,” he said. Cash said he is relieved that Waylon found a loving home and is no longer on the streets. “It worked out perfectly,” he said.
“You couldn’t ask for a better ending.”.
