When Christina Eyth came home one cold day, she saw mysterious paw prints in the fresh snow in her yard.
Intrigued, the kind Pennsylvanian resident decided to follow the tracks, which led her to a shocking discovery.
The paw prints led to her basement door, where she found a mysterious animal curled up against the cold.
In a conversation with NBC News, Christina said that she thought the paw prints belonged to her neighbor’s dog. However, she soon realized how wrong she was.
Despite not recognizing the creature in her backyard, Christina felt compelled to help. She said:
“All I could think about is ‘this animal needs help.’”
Thankfully, the animal wasn’t aggressive, and Christina managed to coax it into her basement.
There, she offered the creature some food and water, before getting Tails of the Rescued (formerly TJ’s Rescue Hideaway), a local animal welfare group, involved.
Unfortunately, even the welfare group volunteers couldn’t identify the mysterious animal, but they knew immediate intervention was necessary to help the distressed creature.
The animal was extremely skinny and malnourished, suffering from a severe case of mange – a skin disease caused by mites that usually infest an animal’s hair follicles.
After safely capturing him, they transported the mysterious animal to Wildlife Works-Mount Pleasant, where they began treatment and conducted DNA testing to determine his species.
Despite having to wait several weeks for DNA test results, the Wildlife Works-Mount Pleasant staff treated their mysterious guest with the same care and affection any animal deserves.
However, just days into the treatment, something unexpected happened. The mysterious animal broke out of the facility and ran away, never to be seen again.
Everyone was shocked and saddened that the animal ran away before it could fully recover. However, their focus quickly shifted when the DNA test results finally arrived…
It turned out the mysterious creature found in front of Christina’s home was actually a coyote, who returned to the Pennsylvania wilderness – its true home.
Despite learning the animal was a wild coyote, Christina expressed no regrets about aiding its survival.
Christina, compassionate and resolute, said she would not have changed her actions, regardless of the test results.