From Elevator Prisoner to Family Treasure: Clay’s Rescue Story
On the day before Valentine’s Day, Suzette Hall, founder of Logan’s Legacy 29, received a message from a local railroad worker that stopped her in her tracks. Attached was a heartbreaking photo: a brown dog, small and trembling, curled tightly into the corner of a cold metal elevator. No one seemed to be helping him.
“I can’t imagine how many times the elevator went up to the second floor and back down again as he just sat there, scared and cold,” Hall wrote on Facebook.
The elevator in question wasn’t open to the public — it was reserved for railway staff with special passes. Somehow, this little dog had slipped inside without permission, and now, surrounded by the hum of machinery and strangers passing him by, he was alone, frightened, and forgotten.
Thankfully, one kind-hearted employee decided to intervene. They reached out to Hall’s team, and volunteer Mary Nakiso rushed to the scene. The railway worker met her and led her to the elevator, where Nakiso braced herself for what she would find.
“As soon as they opened the doors, there he was,” Hall later wrote. “He was huddled in the corner, shaking, too scared to move.”
The worker held the doors open as Nakiso gently approached, wrapping the dog in a warm blanket. Without hesitation, she carried him out into the rainy afternoon and straight to her car. Only then did the little pup — now named Clay — seem to realize he was finally safe.
“[T]his sweet baby boy curled up in a blanket and fell fast asleep,” Hall said. “He was warm and didn’t have to go up and down in an elevator again.”
Clay still had a journey ahead — a veterinary checkup, a foster placement, and, hopefully, a forever home — but his first hurdle was behind him. His checkup came back clear, and soon he was settling in with foster mom Rebecca Taylor.
“Clay is doing well in his foster home,” Taylor shared. “He’s very sweet and gets along wonderfully with my two daughters, ages 6 and 8, and with my dog, too. He’s going to make someone so happy.”
Taylor was right. Just a few weeks later, Clay found his perfect forever family. The shy, cold elevator stowaway had transformed into a cherished companion with a warm bed, loving humans, and a safe home to call his own.
“He’s such a sweet baby,” Hall told The Dodo. “We love him so much.”
From that cold, endless ride in the elevator to a life full of love, Clay’s journey is a reminder that sometimes the smallest acts of kindness — a phone call, a rescue, a warm blanket — can change a life forever.