When a woman named Christina Eyth stepped outside her home on a cold and snowy day in Pennsylvania, she had something to see.
Leading to her house, stamped in the fresh snow, were paw prints of what appeared to be a dog.
Unusual Scene
The pattern of the prints made Christina quite concerned, so she decided to follow them and see where they took her.
“I saw that there were dog prints that went up to my door like he was looking in for help,” said Christina.
As she walked along the paw prints, she arrived right outside her basement door and what she saw broke her heart.
“That’s when I saw this poor animal. He looked so cold and was shivering,” she said.
But, when she saw the animal, she really couldn’t tell what it actually was.
Mystery Animal
However, Christina wasn’t paying too much attention to the animal’s appearance. All she knew was that she had to bring it somewhere where it was warm.
She quickly decided to lure the animal into her basement where she gave it some food and water.
Since the animal appeared to have been suffering from mange, identifying what species it belonged to was no easy task.
“I wasn’t completely sure, but he never showed signs of aggression. I just saw an animal in need of help and wanted to help him,” she said.
Solving The Mystery
Christina decided to post the mystery animal on her local message board. Almost immediately, she received a message from one of the volunteers of Tj’s Rescue Hideaway, Pennsylvania.
Not even the welfare group was completely certain as to what animal was in question. But, nevertheless, they knew it needed help.
“Maria [the group’s organizer] and her team came out and were able to catch him without hurting him at all. [They] transported him to Wildlife Works-Mount Pleasant to get treatment and testing done to confirm what he is,” Christina said.
Since the test results would take several weeks to come in, the rescuers knew they had to treat this helpless animal regardless of what it was.
The animal had a severe case of mange and was extremely malnourished.
It was also quite hesitant and scared of the shelter staff, so they had to be very gentle when providing the animal with the medical attention it needed.
However, the most unexpected thing happened.
Being only a few days at the facility, the mystery animal managed to break out and run away, never to be seen again.
However, in the end, the results did come in.
Turns out that the little scared animal was indeed a coyote who is now back in the wilderness where it belongs.
However, this did not frighten Christina at all, as she knows she did the right thing. “No matter the results of the test, I wouldn’t have changed anything I did to help him,” she concluded.
