On September 17th, the alarms of an animal shelter in southern California went off and the crew immediately thought that there was an intruder in the building. After taking a look at the security footage, they realized that it wasn’t a person at all that triggered the alarm – but rather a homesick dog that was recently brought in and was simply trying to find her owner.
The dog, a German shepherd who was almost three years old, was named Ginger and was left behind by her owner at the Apple Valley Animal Shelter. Her owner left her there because he was homeless and didn’t want Ginger to have to live with him in a car.
He wanted a better life for Ginger and made the heartbreaking decision to put her up for adoption at the animal shelter.
“Her previous owner didn’t want her to live out of a vehicle,” Director of animal services Gina Whiteside said to Inside Edition. “It was a very difficult thing for him.”
The shelter staff was absolutely stunned when they saw the security footage. Ginger was able to open up three doors completely by herself, and even played around a bit and caused some chaos in the reception area before opening the final door to leave the building.
It was clear that the German shepherd was homesick and wanted to return to her owner.
“When the animal control officer came, he noticed that the front counter phones were all over the floor and papers as well,” said Whiteside. “It looked like someone trashed the front area.”
Even though Ginger managed to escape, authorities were luckily able to recapture her just a couple of days later, three miles from the shelter. She was confused because she didn’t know where her owner was, but she was safe again. At the moment, she returned to the Apple Valley shelter and now resides in a more secure room.
Gina mentioned to the San Bernardino Sun that a canine escape certainly was a first for them.
“We’ve never had another dog do this,” she told. “We’ve had a couple of dogs jump out of the kennel and staff found them right away,” Gina added. “But we’ve never had one jump out of the kennel, then open three doors and go out the front.”
After the news got out about Ginger’s heartbreaking escape, many people have expressed interest in adopting the adorable German shepherd.
“She’s a pretty awesome dog,” director Gina Whiteside concluded.
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