One terrified little chihuahua got a second chance on Friday evening when a California highway patrol officer rescued her from the median of a busy freeway.
The dog, which animal shelter staff believe to be about two years old, somehow got trapped on Interstate Highway 680 near Walnut Creek, northeast of San Francisco. Several motorists called the police to report the dog zigzagging its way through rush hour traffic, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
It was at that time that CHP officer John Fransen spotted the animal, pulled over and attempted to save the dog. He used a protein bar to coax the canine toward him. According to local news station KRON 4, Fransen kept the dog calm until animal control arrived. The Contra Costa CHP then tweeted out a heartwarming photo of the rescue.
This little dog needed some help off I-680 freeway today. We’re glad he’s safe. #CHP #Safe #Dog #DogTreats pic.twitter.com/RTuyB6fdPg
— CHP Contra Costa (@320PIO) May 10, 2014
Officers aren’t sure how the dog got onto the stretch of roadway, but fear a citizen may have abandoned the animal.
“I don’t exactly know what happened, how the animal ended up there,” Sgt. Cedric Williams-Cane with the Contra Costa Animal Services told KRON 4. “But, it wasn’t by accident.”
The staff at the Contra Costa animal shelter reports that the dog was uninjured, and has started to recover from its emotional ordeal, according to a post on Facebook. Members of the public have offered to adopt the dog, and a KRON 4 reporter dubbed her “Freeway.”
Those wanting to adopt Freeway will be entered in a lottery, but Williams-Cane encourages those who don’t win to consider going home with one of the chihuahua’s shelter mates.
