Abandoned in a Bag: A Romanian Rescuer’s Personal Story from Târgu Frumos

Some rescues take just a few minutes. Others are drawn out over days and need everything a rescuer has to give.

ROLDA works alongside dedicated local partners across Romania, including a small rescue association in Târgu Frumos whose work you may remember from the story of the two abandoned Bichons.

After a sterilisation campaign in the town, word reached one of their rescuers: a small dog had been seen alone in a field, out past the edge of town.

She went to look. What happened next is best told in her own words.

“I found her in the field, scared, staying next to the bag she had been abandoned in. I went with food. I went gently. Nothing worked. She would run away terrified, but she always came back to the bag. It was all she had left.
On the first day she was full, because I kept feeding her to get closer. When I finally decided to use a tranquilliser, she wouldn’t eat any more. I said, that’s it, I’ll come back tomorrow. I had already spent five hours chasing her.
The next day: tranquilliser and chicken! She ate everything, a whole tube. I said, okay, we’ve got her. But when I thought she was asleep and we moved closer, she ran again. After two and a half hours, I was already making calls for a trap cage. I had no other option. Then she ran across the field, and I ran after her. From the day before, I knew there was a stream at the edge of the land, and I was afraid I would lose her if she got into the reeds.
I followed her. I couldn’t see her, but I could hear the little bubbling sounds her nose made as she entered the water

Safe at last, carried back across the field after two days

I dropped everything and went in after her, through the mud and past the frogs. I didn’t even manage to take a picture, but honestly that was the last thing on my mind. Gică, who was with me, was back at the car. It was just the two of us. I rolled up my trousers, threw off my shoes, and went into the water after her.
Now it makes me laugh. Not at the time. Sunburnt and smelling like frogs. But yes, I caught her.”

Warm, clean and no longer smelling of the stream

She is safe now. She has been bathed and fed, and the field, the bag and the stream are behind her.

She is still afraid of men and children. For now, she feels safe with just one person, the woman who waded into the water to catch her. Whoever left her in that field broke her trust in people, and rebuilding it will take time. As her rescuer says, there is still work to do.

Somebody carried this little dog into a field in a bag and walked away. A rescuer spent two days earning her trust, then walked into a stream to carry her back out.

That kind of stubborn, personal devotion is what your support keeps alive, in Târgu Frumos and everywhere ROLDA’s partners work.

Thank you for standing behind the people who refuse to give up.