Roadside Rescues

When Good Samaritans go above and beyond

This article was originally published in the June 2025 OVERview digital magazine. Also see our article on Tips for Roadside Rescuers.

Sadly, it’s not uncommon for dogs, particularly puppies, to be discarded, sometimes in perilous situations along the road. Luckily, Good Samaritans step in and sometimes go beyond saving the abandoned dogs… they adopt them.

“Perfect Yellow Street Dog”

Ella is a 9 1/2-year-old dog with many USDAA accomplishments including Lifetime Achievement Award, ADCH Bronze, two-time Grand Prix^® finalist and Steeplechase^® silver medalist at Cynosport^®. Owner Courtney Holscher describes Ella as a “Perfect Yellow Street Dog”; she was found on Cummings Road in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 2016.

Courtney Holscher and Ella

“I was on summer break during vet school. I was driving through town while helping my parents move to a new house, and Ella ran out in front of my car and crouched down and rolled over in the road. I pulled over and called her to me. She had no ID, and I took her home. After several weeks of attempts to find her owner, no one claimed her, and she became a permanent member of the family,” Courtney recalled of meeting her pup (about 8 months old).

“I obviously don’t know for sure how she ended up in the road, but several neighbors mentioned that where I found her was an area where people tended to dump dogs. So, either that was the case or she got out and no one bothered to look for her,” she added.

“Overall, she was fairly easy to train and very much wanted to please. When she was first found, she was only partially house-trained, and we would occasionally find her on the kitchen counters looking for food, but as soon as she was shown what to do, she caught on quickly.

"She struggled with some environmental distractions when starting in agility (e.g., she loved people and would go visit ring crew, and she also loves critters, so if training outside sometimes she would leave to hunt), but with patience and lots of reinforcement, she became a very consistent, fun agility partner,” she said.

Courtney and Ella recently moved to upstate South Carolina (Six Mile), where she is launching a mobile acupuncture/rehabilitation practice.

From rescue to Cynosport

When Chase, now 5, and his littermates were found roaming the streets of Tennessee as puppies, his rescuers never could have imagined he would end up competing at Cynosport a few years later. At 4 months old, he landed in Jan Saylors’ home after being turned over to a rescue where Jan fostered, and the rest is history.

Jan Saylors and Chase (Stephen Shawl Photography)

“He was a very confident, athletic and agile puppy with great drive,” said Jan, who lives in El Dorado Hills, California. “He also got along great with my other dogs. It wasn’t long before he became a foster failure.”

Some of Jan’s previous fosters came from breed-specific rescues, such as Border Collies and Malinois, which gave Jan a better idea of their temperaments and natural abilities. Although Chase came with a mixed pedigree as a Cattle Dog, his love for agility was there from the start.

“Agility has been a way to channel my dogs’ energy and creates a great bond with them,” said Jan. “They all love to work, which keeps me on my toes and engaged with them.”

Trooper, another of Jan’s rescues, was dumped at a local shelter with the rest of his litter at 6 weeks old. He earned Bronze Lifetime Achievement award last year. (GreatDane Photos)

Attitude and more

ATTI (as in Attitude) was found in a box full of puppies on the side of the road almost seven years ago. Pam Cannon Orms said she now has multiple agility, obedience, rally, fetch and trick titles, and is her demo dog for pet classes.

Atti (Pam Cannon Orms)