Where we live in China can get very wet during the June and July rainy season. The nearby Yangtze River often floods over its banks into the park next to it. Many cats and dogs used to live here so it was always worrying making sure they had somewhere to go. What amazed me was that they were often well aware of the rising waters and risks. They had already found somewhere on higher ground to settle. Animals can sense changing weather conditions and natural disasters much better than we can.
I recently saw a video about a man who fed a local dog. One day the dog came into his yard where he would usually give the dog some food. Instead of waiting to be fed this time the dog signalled for the man to follow him. It’s funny how dogs and cats are able to lead humans to places just by walking, stopping and looking in our direction and making sounds. Has this ever happened to you?
The dog led the man around the corner to a hole in the soil. He saw that there were puppies inside and that they seemed to be ok. At this point he didn’t take the puppies home. I can understand that sometimes, when it doesn’t seem urgent it can be better to leave puppies alone if their mother is still there and they seem healthy.
It really depends on the situation. For me, I have had situations where stray puppies seemed to be well looked after and I didn’t want to take them from their mother, especially incase they were still being fed by her. It can also be very costly and of you don’t have space for the dogs at home, or you have too many animals already, boarding costs get very high.
In the video, a few days later there is some heavy rain. The dog comes back to the man’s yard and when he goes to check on the puppies he notices that they were hidden in the hole, but weren’t sheltered well enough to protect them from the heavy rainy weather. Their fur was soaking wet and he knew he had to act fast to save them.
Thankfully he brought them into a sheltered area of his yard and their mother was able to care for them, keep them warm and eventually they were adopted. What a lovely story, animal rescue can be so challenging that I always like to remind myself of happy stories like this one. It’s amazing to see how this dog clearly trusts the man. It doesn’t take much for a dog to trust somebody. if you feed them regularly and they can sense you have good intentions. I will link to the video below if you’d like to watch their rescue.