Compassionate construction workers who built an insulated survival den for a freezing stray terrier along a Maryland highway ultimately saved her life, with the grateful dog now thriving in her forever home after a two-month ordeal dodging traffic and winter storms.
The black-and-white terrier—subsequently named Susan Badger—owed her survival to construction crew members who discovered her shivering near their Baltimore-Washington Parkway worksite in January and immediately took action to protect her from brutal winter conditions.
Workers constructed an insulated shelter using materials from the construction site, carefully lining it with blankets and bedding whilst maintaining fresh water and dog food supplies despite the skittish animal remaining too frightened for capture.
“They realized she was living alone and struggling to survive,” according to reports, with crew members tossing sandwich scraps and doughnut pieces to sustain her whilst she darted between construction equipment and the roadway’s edge.
The makeshift den proved crucial as Susan endured a winter storm dumping nine inches of snow across the region, with the construction workers’ intervention preventing her death from exposure during freezing nights along the busy parkway.
One worker later visited Susan at Anne Arundel County Animal Services following her eventual rescue, telling the Washington Post he felt relieved seeing she had survived the ordeal.
Driver Rob Mark spotted Susan beside the highway on 26 March, alerting his wife Jill-Ann whose online post enabled rescuers Donna Darling and Lexy Sweno to successfully trap the terrier using fried chicken bait the following day.
The couple adopted Susan after meeting her at the shelter, where she initially growled and attempted escaping before transforming remarkably within days to rest beside staff on couches.
“Both of us looked at each other like, ‘Well, I think this is a done deal,'” Jill-Ann recalled of their adoption decision.
Now living in Ellicott City, Susan spends days enjoying treats and nudging her owners for affection with gentle headbutts. “The degree to which she has made herself comfortable is both heartwarming and hilarious, because she just is already queen,” Jill-Ann told the Washington Post.
The construction workers’ makeshift shelter will be repurposed assisting future animal rescues across the area—a lasting legacy of the compassion that saved Susan Badger’s life.
