It was just after sunset when Lianne spotted something on the side of the dirt road.
She hit the brakes. A small, shaking creature was huddled near a ditch. It looked like a puppy — skinny, brown, and wide-eyed.
She wrapped it in her hoodie and brought it home.
At first, everything seemed normal.
The “puppy” curled up at her feet, followed her dog around the house, and devoured bowls of rice and chicken.
But it never barked. Instead, it made a low clicking noise at night. And when it played, it played rough.
It grew fast, too fast.
Its front legs grew longer than its back ones. Its fur turned coarse, almost patchy. And it started snarling at strangers… and then at her dog.
Lianne started to worry. “This isn’t a puppy,” she said to a friend.
She brought it to a vet, just to be sure.
The vet took one look at the animal and stepped back. “Where did you find this?”
She told him. His face changed. “This isn’t a dog. It’s a young hyena.”
Hyenas are rarely found alone, let alone this far from their range. Experts believe it was orphaned or displaced and had latched onto her like a surrogate pack.
The animal was relocated to a wildlife reserve, where it could grow safely and be studied.
And Lianne? She still calls it her “weirdest rescue ever.” But says she’d do it all over again.
