Bret Winingar and his son Zach went on a journey on their motorcycle across the Arkansas countryside in January 2015.

They came across an animal crate off to the side of the road, hidden behind some bushes.

They came to a halt and glanced around more closely because they felt like it.

Bret and Zach noticed that the top of the carrier had been completely bitten through. Whatever was within appeared to be desperately trying to escape.

They were unprepared for what was about to happen.

On a sunny January day, Bret Winingar and his son rode their bikes down the highway.

The father and kid were driving through rural Arkansas, east of Little Rock. Along the way, they noticed a package in the bushes.

They were instructed to dismount their motorcycles and investigate the box.

What they discovered there was both horrifying and life-changing.

Bret and Zach noticed that the top of the carrier had been completely bitten through. Whatever was within appeared to be desperately trying to escape.

When they opened the crate, a large black dog stumbled out, mostly skin and bones.

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

This unfortunate dog has been abandoned for a long time. She had scratches and scrapes all over her body as a result of being trapped within the plastic box.

They had to leave the dog behind because they were riding bikes and needed to get to Zach’s vehicle and some food as soon as possible. They hoped she’d still be there when they returned.

She was still standing 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.”