Stephanie Dagenhart was walking her two dogs early one morning when her heart sank.

A young American bulldog was tied to a tree in Baltimore’s Patterson Park, aƅanԀοneԀ and shaking in the frigid cold.

“He was just sitting there, so somber and freezing cold. And I could not get that out of my head… He was shaking so hard from being cold,” she told CBS.

Stephanie approached the stoic dog, but got the sense he wanted some space. So, she took a seat on a nearby bench and continued to talking to him, letting him know he was no longer out there all alone.

Along with some dog food and a broken-down cage, she also found a note believed to be written by his previous owner:

“His name was Duke and he had his favorite bone and food and crate with him and could someone please love him”

Stephanie called the police and animal control, then wrote a post on Facebook to express the fact she was quickly losing faith in humanity.

There are certainly more humane ways of surrendering a pet, and Duke’s previous owner could and should have handled things much differently.

But then, while waiting for authorities to arrive, neighbors who had seen Stephanie’s Facebook post began showing up to the park…