We still don’t know her original name, her exact age, where she came from or who put her in that suitcase, even after a Jack Russell mix found abandoned and trapped in Toronto’s Lambton Park made headlines earlier this year.
But it turns out Casey - a name given by Toronto Animal Services - eventually found a forever home, at the end of April.
“Ecstatic,” says Wendy Burant, TAS West Region supervisor, on what it was like to hear she had been adopted.
“There was so much media attention and so much involvement that I was in from the beginning too, so when you get the feedback, it's actually heartwarming,” she said.
It was January 5th when the Black Dog Rescue Facebook group posted about the shocking discovery, by joggers in the Etobicoke park the previous Saturday morning.
“They could tell the suitcase was thrown down the hill above where they found it. After climbing up the hill they were able to follow the suitcase's drag marks 200m,” the post said. “The area where they were jogging is not well used at this time of year. Thankfully the weather was warmer than normal or she could have frozen to death.”
While Burant has seen much worse cases of physical neglect on animals, Casey - estimated to be about five years old based on the tartar on her teeth - did need various types of treatments, beginning with behavioural issues with other dogs.
Those were resolved with a TAS training program, but she also had urinary tract problems, a lump that had to be evaluated and major dental surgery.
Following her recovery and after COVID-19 hit in March, Casey was transferred to one of the animal organizations TAS partners with and eventually placed in a foster home.
“The foster home that she was with fell in love with her and adopted her. She is in a home with no other animals and no small children and with lots of area to exercise and enjoy nature,” Burant said, (TAS is not permitted to say which organization or who adopted Casey.)
What led up to her desertion was never solved, as there were no tags or microchip when she was found.
Burant said the situation was certainly an unusual one, given how she was left in the suitcase and that she was found at all, leading to the public interest and attention.
Like everything else, animal adoptions had to adjust, going to appointments only, with a screening process upon arrival, while remaining steady, Burant said.
“Everybody was looking for dogs and cats because of the pandemic,” she said. “Now there's not a lot of animals being adopted all at once, because we're careful with our intake and our outcomes so we're abiding by COVID protocols and keeping everyone safe. So usually when somebody is coming in to meet the pet, they are adopting it at the same time.”
And in a time of seemingly bad news on an almost daily basis, she said she’s just happy there’s a happy ending in this case.
“You know that something good has come out of all of this in what started out as a very bad situation,” Burant said.