Rainsboro resident Regina Webster has cared for a puppy that was abandoned at Rocky Fork Lake before taking him in.

“I saw on the Highland lost dog site that he was sitting at the picnic woods at Rocky Fork Lake, and I saw that at the beginning of August, so I went out there and looked, and sure enough he was sitting there,” said Webster.

She said a litter of puppies had been abandoned by the lake sometime around early spring. The dog warden was able to capture most of them, she said, adding that a group of people, including herself, would go to the park and take care of a puppy they named Rocky.

“I’ve been going out there in the morning and bringing him breakfast and sitting with him, and then in the afternoon and at night,” said Webster. “I brought him toys and balls, and he eventually even played catch with me.”

Webster said a woman from Texas who comes to visit her son every summer brought her poodles to play with Rocky. “She would bring him food and visit with me,” she said.

She said several people watched over him and tried to catch him, but he would just run away. “With me, he came up and let me pet him and would lay on the blanket with me and let me rub his belly, but he just wouldn’t let me catch him,” she said.

She tried to catch Rocky with a rope, but he escaped. “The next morning he came out, and he was fine,” said Webster. The next night she found him playing with the rope after searching for him for hours.

“Eventually, he trusted me, but he would never eat out of the dish or drink water out of the dish,” she said. “All summer I was freezing ice chunks and bringing him chunks of ice, and he would eat that because I didn’t want him drinking out of the lake.”

She also gave him deworming pills.

Finally, a man with his golden retriever and another leash helped Webster catch Rocky. “We finally got him, and he helped me get him in my Jeep,” she said. “He actually wouldn’t even come out of my Jeep, and he just stayed there, but I just finally got him out (Tuesday) morning because I was able to get a harness on him.”

Webster said Rocky is doing well and staying in the cabin by her house.

“It was starting to get pretty cold, and we even put a dog house out in the woods on Friday for him, but I think he was afraid of it because he didn’t look like he ever went in it,” she said.

Webster said Rocky is probably not a year old and appears to be a German shepherd/boxer mix. “He’s very smart — that’s for sure,” she said. “He’s the only one that didn’t get caught until now.”

Webster moved to Rainsboro from Rhode Island about a year and a half ago. “I just love dogs, and I can’t stand it when I see them dumped and lost,” she said.

Reach John Hackley at 937-402-2571.