No one knows exactly why someone tied a 6-month-old dog to a fence at an infamous dumping ground for unwanted dogs in Texas – but when a local woman spotted the animal, she knew she had to help.

Judy Obregon – who runs local rescue organization The Abandoned Ones (TAO) – drives these desolate roads nearly every day, looking for animals she can save. Too often, the dogs she finds around Echo Lake Park are already dead. But this week, among bags containing decomposing bodies of unwanted animals, Obregon spotted motion.

As she was driving by, a dog lifted up her head and watched her. When she rushed to pull over, the little dog cried and couldn’t get to Obregon fast enough, even though she had to limp the whole way. When she got close, she put her little face in Obregon’s hand.

“I didn’t notice what she had around her neck until I put her in my vehicle,” Obregon told The Dodo.

Something like a shoestring was tied tightly around the dog’s neck. As Obregon passed the fence, she saw the other part of the string tied there. Obregon thinks the dog was limping because she strained to break free.

“The saddest part is that even when she broke free of the string, she still stayed in the same spot, as if waiting for the people who left her there,” Obregon said.

As Obregon was driving the dog, now named Callie, away from the place where she was dumped, the dog took a last glance back, as if leaving her past behind her.

Then she gave her rescuer a kiss on the cheek.

At the veterinarian, Callie, who wasn’t microchipped, was discovered to be healthy – remarkable, considering all she’d been through.

And she had a healthy appetite, to everyone’s relief.

“Dogs like this make me cry all the time,” Obregon said. “They are just so forgiving. I can see it in her eyes.”

The day after her rescue, Callie – who is currently in a foster home and will be up for adoption soon – was already smiling.

“She’s coming around to the point that she doesn’t give a damn about what happened to her before,” Obregon said. “Her past is behind her.”