Tears as Abandoned Dog Patiently Waits on Porch for Owners Who Moved Away

More than a million people have followed an abandoned dog's journey, from being found neglected on a frosty porch in Georgia to being rescued by animal welfare workers and rushed to safety.

A friend of Luck's Rescue, an animal rescue in the rural south, discovered Lucy the dog while visiting a property in December. The dog had been left ridden with fleas, without food or water, in freezing conditions on a derelict porch.

Founder, Audray Luck, pieced a video together that details the state in which she found Lucy and how she rehabilitated her.

The social media clip, that had been shared to TikTok and Instagram by @lucksrescue, has been viewed more than 9 million times across both platforms since it was first shared online on December 20.

"Lucy came to me two weeks ago, after I received a call from a friend of ours who owns rental properties. He told me that when he went to inspect a property after the tenants had moved out he'd found Lucy," Luck told Newsweek.

"I immediately sprung into action and rushed over to the property where I found her scared and alone. The next day I had her in with a foster, getting groomed and going to the vet. That was the first day of the rest of her new and improved life."

"I am happy to report she has been adopted to a loving family," she added.

Luck shared that she starts every rescue operation with a small investigation into the stray companion animal, to learn everything that can possibly be learned about that animal's backstory.

"I knocked on the neighbors door and he confirmed that the former tenants had left her behind," Luck recalled.

She added that in recent months she'd rescued an adult female dog and a litter of puppies that were living inside a burned-down house with no water.

"Yesterday no less than 43 dogs, that being 39 unwanted puppies and four accidental dogs, were brought to me to rehome. The resources here are scarce, and the people living in this community often suffer just as much as the dogs do," she said.

Luck's Rescue began as a dog rescue initiative in rural Georgia, headed by Luck. She works to rescue dogs in impoverished, underserved and rural communities.

"My goals aren't just to rescue dogs but to also fight for change in my local government, offer community resources and education, and I am so grateful to everyone who has donated to our cause. The funds will be used to establish status, fund rescue, rehab and rehoming structure support for my county."

"The outpouring of love and support that I've received since posting Lucy's story been overwhelming. My following on Instagram grew from 5,000 to 114,000, but the rescue work that I do has not slowed down one bit! Yesterday, I received four calls totaling in 44 dogs and puppies needing rescuing," Luck added.

The rescue founder lives on the border of Alabama and Tennessee, nearby Chattanooga. The county that she lives in does not currently have animal control or shelter services, and as she summed up "barely any animal ordinances that can protect animals."

"No law enforcement here is willing to enforce animal protection laws. So when dogs like Lucy are abandoned, neglected and left behind when the owners decide to move on without them, no further actions are taken to prosecute the very obvious animal abuse that we have seen," she said.

"On a regular basis dogs are shot, ran over, starved, abused and left behind to fend for themselves."

Luck told Newsweek that she hopes the public interest on social media in Lucy's story will spark more people in this region to voice their advocacy for animals. As for now, she's continuing to work with local government and law enforcement bodies to exact legal change and initiate the development of a shelter that, she said, had been voted for approval 20 years ago.

The social media post can be seen here.

Correction 01/15/2024, 7:50 a.m. ET: This article was updated to take out the description of Luck's Rescue as a shelter.

Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.