MONCTON -- A dog abandoned in New Brunswick is now safe thanks to a group of volunteer searchers and the local SPCA.

She is still a bit timid, but Whitey is safe, being fed and beginning to regain some weight after spending three weeks alone in the woods.

Reports surfaced of someone dropping the dog off on a rural road and then leaving. That hasn’t been proven, but regardless of how Whitey got there, people walked the woods and train tracks between Moncton and Salisbury to find her.

There were some regular sightings, and then a period where nobody saw Whitey for days, leading rescuers to fear the worst.

“There was a group of ladies, they were able to move the trap cage around to sightings and they brought her in to us safe and sound and we're very very happy for their help,” said Nanette Pearl, animal welfare director.

But the desire for the public to help may have actually hindered the search efforts.

“Sightings are very helpful so we can put the trap cage in a location that she would go to but we would like to make that the primary food source, so the good willing people that are putting food out for her, thinking they're helping, are actually taking away from the opportunity for her to go to a food source in the trap,” Pearl said.

The baited trap cage was supplied by the SPCA, where Whitey is calling home, for now.

Since Whitey’s story became public, the SPCA has been inundated with phone calls from people wanting to adopt her, but she will stay there for the next week and a half to receive medical treatment and to put on some weight.

“We are working with a local peer community, the Pyrenees community, which is very breed familiar because while she's beautiful and white and fluffy and teddy-bear looking, and everybody wants to save her because they feel sorry for her, we need her to go to a very breed-familiar home,” said Pearl.

Pearl says there is no need to abandon any dog as the SPCA will take in ones that have no place to go.

“Bring them to us, there's no judgement, there's no fee, bring them in and we will do the best we can for them,” she said.