A good Samaritan was hiking in the North Carolina wilderness when she found a stray dog with no collar in February 2023. She reportedly put the “hungry and cold” animal in her car and took him to the Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society.
“We were happy to give this boy a clean, warm and safe space to stay, plenty of food for his empty tummy, and all the vaccinations and preventatives he needed,” the shelter wrote March 27 in a Facebook post.
Now, more than a year after the rescue, Miles the dog is still in need of a new owner. The humane society believes the roughly 4-year-old pup has been overlooked because he’s a hound.
“Hound dogs have a bad reputation for being stubborn and unruly and while that is true in some cases, they are also eager to please,” shelter manager Kaitlyn Moss Villarreal told McClatchy News in an email. “Just like every dog in our care, I think Miles would thrive in the right environment.”
Miles made it to safety after he was seen “wandering along one of the trails” in Panthertown Valley. The 6,300-acre area — which boasts gorges, waterfalls and other natural features — is sometimes called the “Yosemite of the East,” according to the U.S. Forest Service.
“In honor of the many rugged and beautiful trails found in the ‘Yosemite of the East,’ we named this dog Miles,” the shelter wrote in a past social media post.
The humane society thinks Miles may have been a lost hunting dog, though no one claimed him and he didn’t have a microchip. He’s described as a “sweet” pup that gets along well with people and other dogs.
The shelter said the “ideal home would have a fenced-in yard and loving humans who live an active lifestyle that would give Miles plenty of opportunity for exercise and adventure.” More details about the animal organization’s adoption process can be found at chhumanesociety.org.
The humane society is in Sapphire, a roughly 55-mile drive southwest from Asheville.
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