Sanitation worker Nazir Nalls was emptying a garbage can into the back of his truck when it suddenly slipped off.
As garbage spilled onto the street, Nalls and his partner, who work for the city of Milwaukee, found a dog inside the can, buried beneath the debris.
“Who puts a live dog in a garbage can?” Nalls, 21, remembered thinking that day, April 15.
The dog was in rough shape. Painfully thin, he had patchy fur and overgrown nails. Nalls and his partner let him out and poured water into a bowl for him.
“You could see his entire skeleton,” Nalls said. “It was like he hadn’t eaten in days or maybe weeks.”
Nalls said they often see stray cats, or sometimes dead animals in the garbage. He had never seen a live dog.
Unsure what to do, they called their supervisor, Alex Halverson, who rushed over.
“He smelled pretty horrid given his settings,” Halverson, 34, said of the dog. “He was extremely malnourished and close to death. My guess is that he probably wasn’t going to see the next day.”
Halverson had packed two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch that day and decided the dog deserved both.
“I don’t think he chewed,” Halverson said. “He just inhaled them.”
The sanitation workers said they were quickly charmed by the dog. Given his circumstances, Halverson said, they expected him not to trust humans. Instead, he welcomed belly rubs and pats.
“He was wagging his tail,” Halverson said.
While petting the dog, Halverson decided to call him PJ because of the sandwiches.
“He wouldn’t bark or bite or anything,” Nalls said. “He was just following us around.”
From there, Halverson drove PJ to Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission to get medical attention. Staff estimated that the dog was about 7 months old.
When PJ arrived, he was in dire condition, said Kate Hartlund, the shelter’s community engagement and volunteer coordinator.
He was dewormed, treated for malnutrition and given medication to help stabilize his digestive system. Staff cleaned his ears and lined his kennel with blankets.
“Any time a dog is that skinny, you have to assume that something is going on internally,” Hartlund said. “You never know what he ate out there trying to survive.”
She said this is not the first time the shelter has received animals found in residential garbage cans, though it is uncommon.
“It’s just hard to imagine,” Hartlund said. “It’s super frustrating.”
A few days after he arrived at the shelter, PJ was placed with a foster family while he gained enough weight to be neutered and cleared for adoption.
Halverson, who has a rescue dog at home, said he and his wife had been contemplating adopting a second pet. He told staff at the shelter he was interested in PJ and called regularly for updates. Staff told him the dog was his if he wanted him.
On May 6, Halverson brought PJ home. The story was first reported by TMJ4 News.
“When the finders are interested in getting the dog, it’s always the best,” Hartlund said. “It was kismet. It just worked.”
Halverson said it didn’t take long for him and his wife to grow attached to PJ.
“He is the friendliest dog I’ve ever been around, and he always has to be near you,” Halverson said.
PJ has made himself right at home.
“We had a bed for him in our bedroom and that lasted a night, and now he sleeps on our bed, on our pillows,” Halverson said, noting that PJ has also bonded with his canine sibling, Fiona. “I don’t think Fi wants us to know that she likes him, but we’ve caught them snuggling.”
The day the sanitation workers found PJ, he weighed 10 pounds. He’s now up to 24.
Looking back, Halverson said, the rescue came down to an unlikely series of events. First, it happened to be garbage day — had it been a day or two later, the pup might not have survived. And then the can slipped off the truck, which doesn’t typically happen.
“The cart falling off was the biggest coincidence,” Halverson said. “And the fact that it was Nazir and Omar — I can’t speak for every crew, but not all of them would have shown the compassion that they did.”
They will probably never know how PJ ended up in that garbage can, Nalls and Halverson said. But for them, where he is now matters more.
“I couldn’t just let a living thing go without any kind of care, nurture and nourishment,” Nalls said.
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