What would you do if you saw a starving dog whilst you were traveling miles away from home? You’d probably do everything you could to try and help, but one man from Northern Ireland went above and beyond to make sure a starving dog that he met on a remote Amazon island got the happy ending she deserved.
The video of David Foster’s incredible story was shared onto YouTube by The Dodo and already has over 374,000 hits and 20k likes. David shares adorable footage of the dog he rescued and narrates the video so that we can hear all about how he conducted this amazing act of kindness.
David and his travel buddies were exploring a remote island in the Amazon in Brazil when they came across a heartbreaking sight.
“We saw a very small shadow.” David said. “I was wondering what this small animal was – it was such a pitiful sight. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.”
At first glance, the pooch, named Negrita, didn’t appear to be a dog. She was so skinny that her bones jutted out and it was clear that the poor thing was starving. David knew that she needed urgent help.
Despite being isolated for most of her life on a remote island, Negrita put all her trust into the humans – almost as if she knew that they were going to rescue her.
“This was not an aggressive dog, this was a dog looking for help,” David said. “She was greeting everybody; the tail was wagging. I was just looking at her thinking ‘what can we do here?'”
David decided that he didn’t have it in his heart to leave Negrita behind. She desperately needed help and he was going to give it to her. He said:
“I said right, this dog is not staying on this beach one more minute. She was coming on the boat and I didn’t know how, but she was coming.”
So without further ado, David and his friends headed back to the mainland on the boat – now with an extra passenger. David’s thoughts then turned to getting the frail dog something to eat and drink.
“The first thing I thought is, this dog is starving. She’s starving to death; she needs to eat.”
He shared the moment that Negrita was given her first proper meal, and you can see just how hungry the sweet pooch is as she is presented with her very own bowl of dog biscuits.
Next, David took her to a nearby veterinary center whilst he tried to figure out how he was going to get Negrita back home with him.
The journey to the mainland itself would take four days, and David’s vacation only had a couple of days left before he was meant to be moving onto another place. But in a huge act of kindness, David canceled his upcoming trip to stay with the pooch. They had already formed a bond and he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her.
“To me, she clinged a lot,” he said. “I was probably clinging to her too, but the ties were cemented at this point. There was no turning back. We were going through this journey together and that was it. There was no stopping us now.”
It took many months of medical tests before Negrita was allowed to leave Brazil, and every minute apart felt like time wasted. But after five months, David finally got the news that he had been waiting so long for. Negrita was finally able to fly back to Northern Ireland to be with her new owner. David was absolutely over the moon and said:
“Once we got through that hurdle, I actually couldn’t believe it.”
Although she was happy to be back with her owner, Negrita took some time to adapt to this new way of living.
She had only ever been used to living on an island, and according to David, she “didn’t know how to dog.” However, with the love and patience provided by David, she soon began to blossom. She is now able to walk next to other dogs and is becoming more trusting of others.
“This was not work,” David said. “This was just moving forward with an animal that needed help.”
David and Negrita now enjoy walks down the beach together – though, granted, the beaches in Northern Ireland are probably totally different from the beaches in Brazil that Negrita was so accustomed to! David cherishes every moment with his pooch and concludes:
“I do look back at this going, ‘I can’t believe this happened.’ I will work for the rest of my life to keep her happy.”
What a beautiful story! Watch the touching video below.
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