‘Devoted’ dog falls out of pickup truck on highway, waits 5 weeks in median for owners to return

For five weeks, the German Shepherd was stranded on the highway’s center median, surrounded by racing cars and without food.

But drivers passing by occasionally spotted her dark snout and her limp as she struggled to survive. She even got a name: “Freeway Frida.”

The police in Galt, about 25 miles southeast of Sacramento, first got a call April 10 from someone who reported seeing Frida fall out of a pickup truck, KCRA reported. For the next few weeks, officers fielded calls nearly every other day alerting them to the limping dog living in the middle of Highway 99. But whenever police went out to search the median, swathed in flowering oleander bushes, they couldn’t find the injured animal.

“Last week, when we stopped getting calls, I thought something happened — she, you know, died,” Galt police officer Silvia Coelho told KCRA.

Then, on Saturday around 6:30 a.m., the department got another call reporting another sighting.

“It’s Saturday morning, traffic is light, we are getting this dog,” Coehlo recalled thinking.

They shut down the highway and, despite the dog’s attempts to hide from officers, captured Frida and bundled her into a police car, the station reported.

“She just laid down and looked at us with those big brown eyes and was like, ‘Oh thank you,' and like, 'Please help me,’” Coelho told KCRA.

At the local animal hospital hospital, doctors discovered Frida was more more than twenty pounds underweight and had broken her back leg, likely from falling out of the truck.

“It was obviously pretty devoted to its owners and stayed in the island waiting for them to come back for five weeks,” veterinarian Mike Johnson told KCRA.

How Frida managed to survive without a source of food and water is also a mystery, Johnson told the TV station. “We were speculating on what she’s been doing for food and water these last five weeks… maybe the rain.”

The dog, who has started to regain weight, is still recuperating at the hospital for the time being. The police are seeking Frida’s owners, the station reported.

This story was originally published May 17, 2016 at 11:20 AM with the headline "‘Devoted’ dog falls out of pickup truck on highway, waits 5 weeks in median for owners to return."