For more than a year, a stray dog wandered around a Walmart parking lot in Birmingham, Alabama, keeping his distance from people and relying on himself to survive.

Then one day, a rescuer named Jasmine Lawson spotted him.

The moment she realized the dog had been living on his own for possibly a year or two, she knew she couldn’t simply walk away. She wanted to bring him somewhere safe — but the little dog had other plans.

And he was surprisingly good at them.

Lawson named him Wally and quickly discovered that catching him wasn’t going to be an ordinary rescue. She initially thought she could have him safely trapped within just a few days. With trail cameras and an automatic trap, everything seemed ready.

But Wally wasn’t about to make things that easy.

Wally Had A Plan Of His Own

The first trap seemed promising.

Wally walked inside, but when the gate moved and touched him, he immediately panicked. Instead of becoming trapped, he backed right out and disappeared.

Lawson wasn’t giving up.

She brought in a larger, heavier-duty trap, hoping the sturdier setup would finally work. But Wally had apparently learned from his first encounter.

The moment he heard the trap click behind him, he bolted again.

It quickly became clear that this dog was paying attention to everything happening around him.

“He was outsmarting me left and right,” Lawson recalled.

Rather than continually trying to surprise Wally, Lawson changed her strategy completely.

She Stopped Trying To Catch Him

Instead of using the trap immediately, she began teaching Wally that it wasn’t something to fear.

For 40 days, the trap remained open.

Every day, Lawson placed food inside it, allowing Wally to walk in, eat and leave whenever he wanted. There was no sudden door closing. No chase. No pressure.

Just patience.

Little by little, the strange object became part of Wally’s surroundings. He could enter it without anything bad happening.

And eventually, that patience started paying off.

By the 70th day, Wally was completely comfortable walking inside the trap to eat chicken. Lawson had spent weeks waiting for the right moment, and something told her that night might finally be different.

So she activated the trap.

Then she waited.

The Moment They Had Both Been Waiting For

At around 5 in the morning, Wally finally walked inside.

The door closed behind him.

After 71 days of failed attempts, close calls and plenty of frustration, the rescue was finally happening.

Lawson immediately rushed to the trap and brought Wally home.

But the story didn’t end there.

After spending about a month fostering him, Lawson realized something she hadn’t expected when she first saw that little head pop up in the parking lot.

She couldn’t let him go.

Wally had gone from a wary stray who wouldn’t let anyone catch him to a beloved member of Lawson’s family.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jasmine Lawson (@jasminelawson)

From Escape Artist To Family Dog

Today, it’s difficult to imagine that the friendly dog Lawson knows now was once so determined to avoid her.

Wally enjoys belly rubs, swimming and spending time with the person who refused to give up on him.

And perhaps that’s what makes his story so special.

Lawson didn’t win by being faster than Wally.

She won by being patient enough to earn his trust.

For a dog who had spent so long surviving on his own, being trapped may have felt terrifying. But by giving him time to understand that the trap wasn’t a threat, Lawson gave Wally something far more important than a way out of the parking lot.

She gave him a chance to feel safe.

Sometimes, rescue isn’t about forcing a frightened animal to change overnight. Sometimes, it’s about showing up again and again until they finally realize that someone is willing to wait.

Wally may have spent 71 days outsmarting his rescuer.

In the end, though, it wasn’t really about who won.

They both did.

Wally found the home he’d been missing.

And Lawson found a dog she couldn’t imagine living without.