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“They had never seen anything like it!”
The call came in from near a Texas rodeo: a stray dog had somehow gotten his head stuck inside a metal tire rim, and things were getting worse by the minute. The people who spotted him were panicked. The dog was clearly terrified and showing signs of distress, and the rim around his neck wasn’t budging.
When the team from Three Little Pitties Rescue (TLP) heard what was happening, they dropped everything. Kelly Russel was one of the first to arrive, and seeing him up close hit hard. His head was badly swollen, and the fear in his eyes was impossible to ignore. No one knew how it had happened—maybe he’d chased something and got stuck—but what mattered now was saving him.
Knowing the clock was ticking, the team sedated him to keep him calm and rushed him to the nearest vet. At the clinic, the staff did everything they could to remove the rim. The dog was so scared, he wouldn’t let anyone near him. He stayed wrapped tightly in towels while they tried, over and over again, to set him free.
Eventually, they realized they’d need help. The fire department arrived and brought in the jaws of life. The team worked slowly and carefully, determined not to hurt him. After nearly an hour, the metal finally gave way. The moment the rim came off, it felt like everyone exhaled at once.
They gave him a name: Pickles. “We started calling him Pickles because he got himself into one,” Russel said in a video.
Pickles woke up not knowing quite what had happened, but the change in him was clear. The weight was gone. He was safe. And finally, he could rest.
After a couple of days of healing, Pickles went home with Russel to recover in foster care. That’s where the real transformation began. Slowly, he started to open up. He followed the other dogs, wagged his tail, and leaned into affection like he had been waiting for it his whole life.
“He started to light up,” Russel said. “It was like he was a puppy all over again.”
The team kept the rim and signed it as a reminder of how far he’d come. Pickles didn’t stay in foster care long. He was adopted not long after, and now he’s living the life every dog deserves—safe, loved, and completely free.
