It was a cold and rainy night when Chicago Police Officer George Davros noticed a shivering bundle on the side of the road while he was on patrol on the South Side.
“...I thought, ‘What is that little puppy doing out there?’” Davros said, recalling the evening of Jan. 6 when he met his 5-year-old Miniature Pinscher mix.
“And then I looked at it... that’s not a little puppy, it’s an actual dog.”
Davros pulled over and was able to coax the dog into his patrol car with some lunch meat. After asking a couple of passersby if she belonged to anyone, Davros brought his new friend back to the Gresham District police station to have her microchip scanned in an effort to find her owners.
“I’m thinking, she’s such a nice little dog, someone’s got to be looking for her,” Davros said Friday while walking his new pet along the Indiana-Illinois border in Wolf Lake Memorial Park.
Davros and the dog bonded at the police station that night as he cleaned her up, gave her food and played with her. But despite it being love at first sight, Davros still turned her over to the city’s Animal Care and Control to be processed and, perhaps, be reunited with her owners.
But the search turned up empty and the dog was transferred to PAWS Chicago. There, PAWS staff members named the dog Jem and readied her for adoption.
Photo of Eva, then named Jem by PAWS staff, before being adopted. PAWS Chicago
“[Davros] very much wanted her to find her family if she was out and lost,” said Sara Rehfeld, director of strategic programs and adoption services at PAWS. “Quite honestly... the other officers noticed a connection between he and Jem.”
So it was no surprise when Davros and his family came to the PAWS’ Lincoln Park adoption center to pick up their new addition. They also gave her a new name: Eva.
“You could tell he [Davros] was in love from that moment on,” Rehfeld said.
Eva snuggled in her owner’s coat to stay warm while on a walk at Wolf Lake Memorial Park at the Illinois-Indiana border.
Marin Scott/Sun-Times
Friday, Davros and Eva strolled through the park near their home, bundled up for the winter, he in a thick coat, she in a pink jacket.
“She’s pretty cool,” Davros said as Eva snuggled in his arms.
