Anyone who has ever had surgery knows just how disorienting it can be to open your eyes again after the anesthesia wears off. But at least humans have some idea of what’s gone on.
Animals, on the other hand, have no idea what’s been done to them. And it’s a wonder they don’t freak out a bit more often.
When a sweet 6-week-old puppy named Meesha was surrendered to the BARCS Animal Shelter in Baltimore, Maryland along with her brother Charlie back in 2016, the first order of business was to spay and neuter them before putting them up for adoption.
After all, they had come from a litter of unwanted puppies, so it’s important to prevent even more!
“Meesha was from an unwanted and unexpected litter of puppies. The family knew that they could not afford the veterinarian bills to really be sure the puppies were healthy and had the best care, so they came to BARCS for help,” Bailey Deacon, BARCS’ Director of Communications told Fox 2 News.
But when Meesha woke up from her surgery, she was pretty scared.
Lucky for her, Dennis Moses was in the room – and the surgical assistant is an animal-lover through and through. He often takes time to comfort disoriented animals after their surgeries.
“If you’ve ever had surgery, you wake up, and you’re not sure where you’re at,” Moses told The Dodo after a video of the two went viral. “It’s a scary thing even for dogs and cats, especially being in the shelter and being that young.”
In the post-surgery video, poor Meesha cries out, likely in utter confusion. But Moses scooped her up and rocked her in his arms, sweetly singing her a song that he used to sing his little sister.
“I was whispering to her, just singing,” Moses told The Dodo.
The song? “Ten Little Froggies.”
The shelter posted the video to Facebook and immediately got attention.
In fact, it garnered 9.7 million views and more than 100,000 shares in just a few short days!
In the caption, they described the moment:
“Baby Meesha was coming off her anesthesia and was a little scared because her body felt so weird. BARCS Surgical Assistant Dennis Moses took her out into the quiet hallway to comfort her. One of our awesome volunteers just happened to be walking by to capture this sweet moment. Thank you to Dennis and all the staff who work long, tireless hours in the background of our shelter—saving lives and loving the animals. (Turn on the sound, it will melt your heart!).”
It really did melt our hearts!
“This is my favorite video of all the ones I have seen on the internet. I have saved it and must have watched it hundreds of times. Love it!” said a commenter.
Luckily, Meesha was adopted quickly after that. And her new family has two little ones to play with.
In fact, her family adopted her in part because of how sweet the pit bull mix was with their 11-month-old daughter.
Her forever family renamed her Maddie and sent an update to BARCS Animal Shelter after she had settled in. And it’s pretty clear she was doing great and had no memory of her traumatic surgery.
Bailey Deacon told WMAR 2 News that the video has attracted 30,000 new Facebook followers to the shelter’s page and even inspired a spike in recent adoptions.
BARCS adopted out over 80 animals in the week following the video’s released! (Normally, they do about 50 in the same time period.)
“It’s been really great,” Deacon said. “It’s been a whirlwind for us.”
If you want to hear the sweet serenade for yourself, be sure to scroll down below for the video and more on the story – and be sure to turn up that volume!
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