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GRAND FORKS — Traill County dispatcher Tami Moore said she never thought she would see Dreamer alive.
Journey Home Animal Rescue in Grand Forks brought her by the sheriff's office Thursday, Feb. 17. Moore was the dispatcher who took the call from a man who at first thought Dreamer was a piece of cardboard in the road near Hillsboro.
Moore and two deputies filled empty soda bottles with hot water and covered the dying dog with blankets from the jail until they could get Dreamer to an animal hospital.
"She looks so healthy. What a good girl," said Traill County Deputy Kelli Tvedt.
The love continued at the Red River Animal Emergency Hospital in Fargo. That's where a team of vets saved Dreamer's life.
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"It was amazing. She honestly looks like a completely different dog," said vet technician Shelby Feickert.
According to police, the dog had been dumped by its overwhelmed owner and left to die in wind chills that dropped to 45 below zero.
"Dreamer looked like she was about seconds away from death, to put it lightly," said Ashlyn Peppler, another vet technician.
"When she first came in, it was too low to read," Feickert said. "The thermometer wouldn't even give us a temperature, it just read: low."
Six weeks later Dreamer is almost fully recovered, except for some frostbite on her tail. Described as a "food hound," she's gained 20 pounds and can eat on her own, something doctors thought may not be possible due to how long she was in the cold.
"It just reminds me this is why I do this. Just for her to be the dog that she is now, considering what she went through, is amazing in itself," said Peppler.
Journey Home Animal Rescue will begin searching for Dreamer's forever home in about a month.
Dreamer's original owner is charged with animal cruelty and abandonment and could face several years in prison if convicted.
