Sisters On Road Trip Stop The Car When They See A Starving Dog In The Road

Amanda and Nicole Lightle were driving home to Illinois from visiting their brother in Mississippi when they passed a dog wandering alone in the middle of the road. Immediately, they knew what needed to be done.

“I said to my sister, ‘I think that was a puppy we just passed. Should we turn around?’ and without hesitation, she said, ‘UH, YEAH.’ Which was good because I was already turning around anyways,” Amanda Lightle told The Dodo. “At first I pulled up beside her, and at this point she was in the tall grass on the side of the highway.”

Nicole got out of the car, and the dog, later named Honey, quickly moved away from her. She was definitely scared but also seemed intrigued, as if she wanted to go with the women but her fear was getting in the way. Amanda grabbed a bag of pretzels to try and entice her to come to them, and that turned out to be enough to seal the deal.

“She perked up to the sound of [the pretzels] and let me get closer, but she was scared to take it at first,” Lightle said. “Eventually she came up and took it, and I was able to pet her. She was shaking but let me continue petting her. Luckily, we had a couple beach towels in the car, so my sister came and gave me one to pick her up. She let me just scoop her up and carry her to the car! She was so sweet right off the bat.”

The family still had nine and a half hours to go on their drive home, and now they had a dog along with them. They stopped along the way to give her a bath in a random park to clean her up a bit. She was dirty and skinny, signs that she had probably been on her own for some time, and she had no collar, tags or microchip. As Honey slept curled up in the back seat, she had no idea she was on her way to her forever home.

Finally, the family arrived in Illinois and went to work getting Honey all settled into her new home. They gave her another bath and focused on getting rid of all the ticks she was carrying around with her. Honey was still pretty nervous, but she also seemed to trust that she was in good hands. After so long of being on her own, she was finally safe.

Now, Honey is slowly but surely getting used to life with her new family, and they couldn’t be more thrilled with their new addition.

“She is doing great now,” Lightle said. “The first week, she really only hung out in her bed that was set up in a cage in my spare room. Just [in] the past two days she has wandered out of there and into the living room with all of us. She’s been curling up in a little ball on the floor while we watch TV and whatnot. She is also officially following me from room to room.”

The family started the 11-hour road trip in a pretty uneventful way and ended it with a furry new family member.