The call was for an “aggressive dog” on a freezing, remote road. When the officer arrived and saw him…

He sat in the snow and refused to move.

Officer Matt Kade was 10 hours into a long winter shift when the call came in. An “aggressive, possibly dangerous dog” was spotted on an old service road.

He arrived, expecting to find a growling dog. Instead, he saw a skeleton. The dog was huddled by a snowbank, so emaciated that every rib and vertebra was visible. He was wearing a heavy, spiked collar, and his face was a raw, red mess of infections and frostbite.

The dog was too weak to even stand. He just trembled, his eyes wide with a terror that said he’d never known a kind hand.

Kade’s training was to call for animal control, but his heart told him something else. He knew this animal wasn’t aggressive; he was a victim, left to die.
He didn’t use his catch pole. He didn’t even stand over him. He just quietly sat down in the snow, a few feet away, and started to talk. “Hey buddy,” he said, his voice low. “It’s okay. I’m not gonna hurt you.”
He sat for 10 minutes, just talking, until the dog’s shivering slowed. Kade slowly moved closer. The dog didn’t flinch. He just let out a low, tired sigh, as if he was finally giving up.

Kade gently pulled the dog onto his lap, wrapping him inside his own coat to share his body heat. The dog, who should have been terrified, just leaned his wounded head against the officer’s chest.

He was safe. For the first time, he was warm. He wasn’t a “vicious dog.” He was just a soul that had been waiting for someone, anyone, to show up. And this officer, sitting in the freezing snow, was determined to be that person.