In January 2015, it was cold outside, so Bret Winingar and his son Zach went for a ride on their motorbike through the Arkansas countryside.

They unexpectedly noticed an animal crate off to the side of the road, tucked away behind some bushes.

They stopped their bikes and looked more closely because they felt like it.

Bret and Zach saw that the top of the carrier had been chewed through all the way through. It looked like whatever was inside was desperately trying to get out.

They were not ready for what they were about to find out.

Bret Winingar and his son rode their bikes out on the open road on a nice January day.

The father and son were driving through a rural area east of Little Rock, Arkansas. Along the road, they saw a crate lying in the bushes.

They were told to get off their bikes and look inside the box.

What they found inside was both terrible and life-changing.

Bret and Zach saw that the top of the carrier had been chewed through all the way through. It looked like whatever was inside was desperately trying to get out.

When they opened the box, a big black dog that was mostly skin and bones stumbled out.

They put the dog’s waste all over the crate, and she smelled “so strongly of death that we couldn’t stand to be downwind, her white feet stained brown from standing hunched in her own feces.”

This poor dog had been left behind for a very long time. Because she was stuck inside the plastic box, she had cuts and scrapes all over her body.

They had to leave the dog behind because they were riding bikes and needed to get Zach’s truck and some food quickly. They hoped she would still be in the field when they got back.

She was still there, waiting.

Bret wrote on his blog, “I was sure that we were too late.” “But then I heard an almost inaudible growl, and I thought, ‘If you’ve got enough strength to growl, you’ve got enough strength to live,’ and we got her loaded up into the back seat of Zach’s truck and headed home.”

Their thankful dog was called “Charlie Bravo,” which is a reference to the Honda CB motorcycles they were riding that terrible day.

Bret and his family rushed Charlie to the vet after giving him a bath that he really needed.

Her nails were so long that they went back into her paws.

She could hardly walk because it hurt so much.

When Charlie was found, doctors thought she was about 8 months old.

Bret didn’t want to accept Charlie because he already had several dogs.

But as Charlie got better and her wonderful personality came out, Bret and his family fell in love with her and couldn’t bear to give her up.

“Breaking down limits, the story of Charlie’s crate has left a lasting mark in more ways than one,” Bret shares.

“Charlie was abandoned in her crate, skin over bones when we found her. To us, that crate is an analogy for every person that lives in a self-imposed prison.”

“That could be a dead-end job, an abusive relationship, chemical or alcohol addiction, or the most confining crate of all, the fear of the unknown.

Charlie looks sweet, happy, and beautiful today. We can do that too with a little help, she tells us.”

The Winingar family got a lot of donations to help pay for Charlie’s hospital bills after her story was shared on Facebook.

Because there were so many gifts, the family gave the extra money to animal shelters in the area.