Anyone who has ever had a pet or did the kindest thing by adopting one knows one thing for sure: people don't rescue pets, pets rescue people.?
Since we are always working towards showcasing kindness in a world where it seems it sometimes doesn't exist, here are some of the best, most heartwarming dog rescue stories that will leave you teary-eyed but also make you believe kindness still exists, we just need to look closer and find it.?
Megan Burris took to Facebook to share her dog-rescue story which read,?
"Walter was dumped miles up a dirt road near the Canadian border. Local community members sprang into action but he was determined to avoid capture and wait with utmost loyalty for his owner to return. Not only was he left behind, his body was desecrated with body spray paint. The word, "free"' casually scrawled in white across his dirty black coat. He was so broken. He hadn't a clue how to be a part of family. He freely urinated on walls, stood on coffee tables and counters, destroyed things and was totally bewildered and terrified at any reprimand. It was a slow slow process involving patients and properly timed rewards. After three months, we witnessed him sleep in our presence for the first time ever. From that point forward, be began to blossom."
Stephanie Bunny Bailey shared on Facebook her own dog-rescue story,?
"My sweet disabled pup Peakin was thrown from a moving car into the swamp behind my house they didn't slow down. Few months later i met someone who knew in detail what this sweet baby went through. The disgusting humans tried drowning her breaking her neck an she was even sexually abused before all that happened. They ended up in jail over something not sure what but i do know it'll be years before they see the light of day again. I make sure to spoil this pup an make sure she lives her best life. She has trust issues with men and children and I dont blame her."
Samantha Parker was at work at a vet clinic in Memphis when?MidSouth Animal Rescue League?president Linda Money asked if she could help her get a new rescue out of her van. The old yellow lab was in really bad shape, unfortunately in more ways than one. When Parker walked out to get her, she knew that she’d be taking her home. The dog’s owner had passed, and his son took her, but didn’t really want her. She had been chained to a tree with only a small wire kennel as her shelter with no food or water, and she could barely even walk. Parker didn’t know how she would act with her family, but was willing to find out.
It was love at first sight: The dog, now named Lady, became fast BFFs with her children. “She acts like she has always been here and feels that way for us too,” says Parker. “Lady has taught me that the love of a senior dog is like no other. She needed me, she needed TLC, she needed a lot of medication, and most of all she needed a family and she has all of that now for however long she has left.” Lady is estimated to be about ten years old and especially loves when Parker’s daughter, Caroline, has her friends over for sleepovers. As for Parker’s?son, Jack, he didn’t even like dogs until Lady came around. “She just lays and lets the kids do whatever they want to her,” Parker says. “It stands out to me because everyone hesitates to bring in a senior dog to there family but she has taught me to never hesitate again. She is completely dedicated to us. She would do anything for us."
Reuters
Ziva, an eight-month-old pit bull, made a heartwarming recovery after she was adopted in June 2018. When she was rescued, she was malnourished, covered in sores, had both eye and skin infections, and suffered from mange.?Ziva was found by the Houston Police Department,?padlocked inside Acres Homes, a low-income neighborhood in Houston, Texas. At the time of her rescue, she had almost no fur, was covered in burns, suffered from both an eye and skin infection, and weighed half of what she should have weighed.Thankfully, Ziva was brought to an animal shelter, where she made a full recovery after three months of hospitalization.?She was eventually adopted by a loving dog mom, and now she's thriving in Fort Worth, Texas, with her new family.
Reuters
Meagan Duhamel won Canada a gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in the team figure skating event. During her spare time in South Korea, she also?rescued two dogs that were headed for slaughter?in the dog meat trade, and would have probably been eaten. The two pups, Moote and Daegong, now happily live with Duhamel.
Reuters
A cyclist found an injured puppy in the woods and biked seven miles into town with the dog on his back. The dog, Columbo, was rescued by Andrea Shaw in Georgia and has since made the cross-country move to Maine.?Columbo was only five months old when he was?found abandoned on the side of a bike path?with a couple of broken bones. A group of bikers came across him outside of Columbus, Georgia, and one of them picked Columbo up and biked him seven miles into town.The bikers bumped into Shaw, who formed an immediate bond with Columbo. She quickly brought him to the vet, alerted her husband, and brought Columbo back up to Maine to live with her.
A video of AJ—a? Labrador retriever went viral as it revealed?just how a dog’s reaction to being abandoned can be. The video showed the poor dog gasping back sobs in sorrow and confusion upon realizing that he had been abandoned. Once the video circulated around the internet, however, it wasn’t long before tons of people applied to adopt both AJ and his brother, and?soon they went home?together with a good, loving family.
“I rescued a beagle from a laboratory,” wrote?Reddit user?@sankeyr. “He had been in the laboratory for the first four years of his life, never seeing the sun and never setting his paws on fresh grass. He had a tattoo in his ear (the lab put it there) with some letters and numbers. Let’s say it was ABC001. After having him for about three years, my wife and I moved into a bigger house with a huge backyard, and we had always wanted to rescue another dog when we got a bigger house with a backyard. So we went and secured another dog from the laboratory."