Dog Trapped in Foreclosed Home Saved By Bank

There are thousands of South Florida homeowners who want to know Maya's secret.

Just how did the 9-year-old chow chow manage to get a bank to help her out of foreclosure? Easy. Just bark.

The dog had escaped from her North Miami Beach home on June 10 and somehow managed to find herself trapped in an abandoned house a few blocks away. Somehow Maya got into the home and was locked inside with no food or water.

Maya's owner, Kathy Sanchez, put up fliers of the lost dog throughout the neighborhood, hoping someone had seen the well-groomed animal.

Miami-Dade Animal Services apparently was the first to see the dog inside the foreclosed home on June 14, but instead of retrieving the dog, a warning was posted on the house's door that leaving the dog inside was illegal and that they would be fined $1,500.

The employee also took pictures of Maya through a window, but did not try to help the animal.

"They basically left her there to die," Sanchez said.

Animal Services officials said they have no authority to enter private property and take an animal, but apologized to Sanchez for not actively working to free the dog. It has become a disturbing trend that people evicted from homes have left their animals behind.

So like many homeowners, Maya was still stuck in a house she desperately was trying to get out of. She clawed at windows and chewed on the window blinds of the house, her owner said.

Almost a week later, a representative from a bank called Sanchez and said she had found the dog laying in a pool of its own urine inside an abandoned home owned by the bank. She recognized the dog from the flier posted directly outside of the house.

When Sanchez arrived to save Maya, the dog was severely dehydrated and malnourished. She had lost over 8 pounds in the at least 10 days she spent trapped and alone.

"She tried everything possible to survive,"Sanchez said. "I'm just ready to get her home."

Maya has been taken to a local animal hospital for treatment, but things could have been much worse if the bank had not come to the dog's rescue.

Imagine that - a bank looking out for someone trapped in a home.