ST. LOUIS — Animal rescue is an important matter in the St. Louis area. Each day, strays are taken off the streets in hopes of finding a new home.
Cutie Pie is one of those rescues. She is a 2-year-old pit bull mix with soulful eyes.
“She’s got beautiful eyes ... just piercing," Donna Lochmann with Stray Rescue of St. Louis told 5 On Your Side. "The one is just piercing blue."
Cutie Pie’s look has changed since she’s been rescued.
“She has that life in her eyes. Oh man, I mean like I barely recognize her,” Lochmann said.
When Lochmann first saw the dog, she was along a fenced-in walkway of a vacant building near downtown St Louis. Cutie Pie was frightened at the time.
“She was so scared," Lochmann said. "She was literally coward to the ground, and I could see her tail was tucked."
Lochmann has spent a lot of years picking up dogs off the streets, "20-plus years," she said.
But in all that time, she hadn’t seen a dog react quite the way Cutie Pie did to Lochmann’s attention.
“Passed by the Vienna sausage that I had tossed down and crawled literally right up to me," Lochmann said. "She put her head like right in my lap and just looked at me like, ‘Oh my God, thank you. You’re really here for me.'"
“She was happy to be out of there,” she added.
Lochmann caught the moment on her cellphone and uploaded the video onto social media. It went viral, with 19.9 million views on TikTok and over 2.2 million views on Facebook. Animal-lover website The Dodo reposted the clip.
“Yeah, it’s crazy,” Lochmann said.
Lochmann said she believes the video is an example of how loving and resilient a dog can be despite their past circumstances.
“The lack of compassion that people show to them, they still give it unconditionally back and it amazes me every single day. Unconditional love, people use that term all the time, but it truly is amazing to me,” she said.
Although Cutie Pie has been seen by millions since she was rescued on Valentine’s Day, she has not been adopted. Lochmann hopes that changes soon.
“Make her a part of the family, that’s the last piece of the puzzle for her. She’s truly blossoming in her foster home,” Lochmann said.
And when Cutie Pie gets her forever home, Lochmann said she believes she will also have a lot to give back.
“She’s just a really all-around good dog,” she said.
If you are interested in learning more about Cutie Pie, visit the Stray Rescue of St. Louis website.
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