Sasha Survived Certain Death to Be Reunited with Her Family

It’s the same horrible story you hear over and over again – the family dog suffers a tragic accident and has to be put down because her family cannot afford the medical care she needs and they do not want to see the animal suffer. Unfortunately this is exactly what happened to Sasha and her family. Only this story has a twist – it has a happy ending.

Sasha is a beautiful, 6-year-old black-coated German Shepherd and companion to a special-needs boy and his family. Sasha, being the smart girl she is, managed to open the gate to her yard. Before she could get too far, her dog mom, Marivel Alcala, called the dog. As Sasha was returning to her, she was hit by a car right in front of Alcala. She suffered a badly crushed leg from the impact of the car.

This wasn’t the worst of it. The injury that Sasha had sustained would need complex and expensive surgery – and money was something the Alcala family did not have. They had just moved into a new house and were counting every penny as it was. The family, unaware of the options available to them, made the heartbreaking decision to put Sasha down.

However, no such thing was going to happen to Sasha. After Sasha was relinquished to a shelter to be euthanized, the vet examining her quickly realized that although her injury was quite serious, it was not life ending. The vet then reached out to the German Shepherd Rescue of Orange County (GSROC) to see if they could help, because if they did not step in, Sasha would be put to sleep, because the shelter did not have the resources needed to help her.

Despite their own issues with limited resources, GSROC agreed to take Sasha and to help her get the medical care that she needed.

Just a little background on the GSROC: they receive no public funding and have no paid staff – this is strictly a volunteer-run organization relying entirely on good people and generous donations. The volunteers recently helped another dog, Courage, with the medical help that he needed after he was nearly starved to death by his owner, a vet tech. The people who volunteer for GSROC often put the dogs they rescue in front of their own needs, and such is the case with Sasha.

Upon meeting Sasha, Maria Dales, the director for GSROC, knew she was a special girl and that she had come from a very loving family. She was in a great deal of pain, but still reached out to her new caregivers with affectionate kisses and enthusiastic tail thumps. Dales decided to contact the shelter from which Sasha came to find out why this well-behaved, sweet-natured girl was given up.

Once she learned the Alcala’s story, Dales knew exactly what she was going to do – she was going to make sure that Sasha was returned to her family.

On April 10, Sasha was returned to her family at no cost to them. Sasha is on strict crate rest so that her leg can heal properly and will need several recheck exams. The Alcala children have promised to make sure Sasha recovers by taking excellent care of her.

Maria Dales said in a press release, “We believe very strongly in the healing power of animals, particularly dogs. If ever there was a family that needed to have their dog returned to them, it’s this one,” she said.

Dales credits the compassion and generosity of donors who helped make this reunion possible. She said that without them, Sasha most certainly would have been put to sleep. Luckily, this story ends well and Dales could not have been happier to see her good work, time and effort get rewarded when the Alcala family was finally reunited with Sasha.

She told i Love Dogs, “Reuniting this severely autistic boy with his dog was one of my most rewarding moments in my 15-year rescue career. The pure joy on his face was angelic. Of course, Sasha was beaming from ear to ear to be back with her family!”