ROANOKE, Va. – Not every dog that enters into a shelter has a happy ending, however for one dog called CoCo, luck was on her side.
Last week, Angels of Assisi got a call from a social employee at Carilion Clinic.
“They said, ‘Please help,’” said Dayna Reynolds, the shelter’s director of interactions.
A client entered into the medical facility and wound up on a ventilator, however he was stressed over his dog, CoCo, who he needed to leave. The 2 had actually been residing in a camping tent.
When he needed to go to the medical facility, he informed CoCo to remain and left her some food. While he was on the ventilator he was not able to speak, so he drew a map of where to discover CoCo.
“He was just so worried about his dog,” said Reynolds.
Four days had actually passed, so the shelter asked the Regional Center for Animal Care and Protection to find CoCo. Roanoke County Animal Control followed the map and discovered CoCo still in the camping tent, much like her daddy asked.
“She briefly stayed at the municipal shelter for a night and then she came to us for vet care,” said Reynolds.
On Wednesday, CoCo was all smiles when she was lastly reunited with her daddy.
The shelter published about their story on Facebook and it’s because gone viral.
“It made my eyes leak,” said Dawn Sandoval, the creator of The Least of These Ministry (TLOT). “That man went over and above to make sure that his dog was cared for.”
TLOT is an outreach organization that assists people experiencing homelessness. Sandoval said a number of them have animals and, as an outcome, can’t remain in location shelters or aren’t permitted to reside in low-income real estate.
“For a lot of homeless individuals, their animals are all they have. And that’s why they’re willing to die on the streets before they’ll give up their animals because they don’t want to be separated from them,” said Sandoval. “That is their family.”
Sandoval deals with Angels of Assisi to supply food and healthcare for animals much like CoCo. The shelter runs a Guardian Angel program: they can foster animals when their owners are ill or briefly without a location to remain.
“It helps people who are temporarily unhoused, are in the hospital or are just going through kind of a hard time and need somewhere for their animal to stay for a couple weeks,” said Reynolds. “It kind of prevents them from losing their animals. Because a lot of these people, just like us, [pets] are our babies. They’re our whole worlds.”
Both companies desire everybody to understand that they’re here to help.
“People need to understand that the only thing that sets us apart from this gentleman that was living in a tent, is a set of circumstances. It could very easily be any one of us. And I think we need to show compassion,” said Sandoval.
Sandoval connected to Angels of Assisi to attempt to contact the guy to use services.
10 News attempted to get in contact with the guy, however he was not right away available for an interview.
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