ROCKFORD, Wash. – After spending more than a week outside in the subfreezing temperatures and snow, fighting to stay alive, one lost mastiff is no longer alone after she was rescued by a woman who knew she needed to step up to save the young dog’s life.
“It’s been a wild ride, we didn’t have a lot of forethought, we kind of just jumped in,” Kasey Blevins said.
From alone in the wild battling brutal elements, to incredibly loved, Mabel the Mastiff has been on a journey that most people wouldn’t want to take on.
For at least nine days, the young mastiff was outside roaming from Worley, Idaho to Rockford, Washington, with little food and water, with no companion and no direction. While it is unconfirmed, Blevins believes Mabel was dumped by a previous owner.
Having loved animals all her life, Blevins knew the right thing to do – help save Mabel. She spent over 30 hours in the field searching for and tracking the dog.
“There’s no way to have an area where you can sit and earn trust, so we were setting up traps everywhere that she was at, and trying to anticipate where she was going to go next,” Blevins said. “She had no pattern, there was no rhyme or reason.”
Through sightings captured and posted to Facebook, along with security camera footage, Blevins laid out Mabel’s long journey.
The mastiff’s first confirmed sighting was on January 10 in Worley, Idaho. Then, for the next two days, she was seen along Molter Road in Rockford. On the13, Blevins spotted Mable for the first time herself, on train tracks in the Rockford area. On the 14, the dog was in a field just north of Elder and east of Molter.
On the 15, Mabel was crossing the road at Molter and Elder, headed southwest. That evening, she was sighted west of Highway 27. On the 16, she headed north on Chapman Road toward Freeman High School. That night she was spotted on a ring camera, curled up in a chair on someone’s porch.
Every single vertebra of Mabel’s spine and her entire rib cage was clear as day through the home’s camera – she was truly fighting to stay alive.
“On Wednesday we were like, ‘we are running out of time,’” Blevins said.
The morning of the 17, Mabel got up again, and a neighbor spotted her tracks leading up another neighbor’s driveway. She wasn’t sighted again until the next day, January 18, when she had found a neighbor’s shop to go into.
“She decided to go stay somewhere finally, so we could get to her,” Blevins said.
Thanks to the considerate help from the community and her team – including her family – Blevins got dog food inside the shop where Mabel found herself and boarded up the shop’s entry.
Not long later, after days of tracking, Mabel was not alone anymore; Blevins took her home that night, where she the mastiff has been spoiled with love and care ever since.
“She’s just so sweet and loving, we just want her to have a really good life and be spoiled forever,” Blevins said.
If you’re wondering, Mabel is not up for adoption just yet. She is staying with the Blevins family at least through the spring, while the young dog recovers and receives medical care. If you would like to keep up with Mabel on her journey, Blevins has started a Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram page for the mastiff.
On Blevins and Mabel’s Facebook page, ‘Mabel the Mastiff’, is where you can find information on how you can help Mabel through donations for food and medical care.
