In late December, Junrell Fuentes Revilla was riding his motorcycle through the mountains near Cebu in the Philippines when a dog started running after him. The dog barked and barked, desperate to get Revilla’s attention. The motorcyclist could sense that the dog was trying to tell him something, so he stopped his motorcycle and approached the puppy.
The dog took Revilla to a landfill and there was a small writhing bundle on the ground. “To Revilla’s surprise, he found a baby wrapped in a brown towel,” he told The Dodo Gea Ybarita, a Hope for Strays staff member.
“The place where the baby was found is isolated, as it is at the top of the mountain.” Revilla picked up the newborn and rushed him to the nearest police station, where the Department of Social Welfare intervened. Thanks to the speed of the dog, the baby was found just in time and was still in good health.
When the story of the stray dog’s heroism spread to the local news, volunteers rushed into the mountains in hopes of finding the brave little dog. Instead, they encountered a man who claimed that the dog, named Blacky, belonged to him. “He showed us the way to his house and to our surprise Blacky was there with three other dogs,” Ybarita said. “We have confirmed that he is not a stray at all.”
Rescuers were relieved that Blacky had a loving home, but it was clear that his dog and his family still needed help. “Blacky’s owner said, ‘No matter how difficult life is, even though I’m poor, I feed all my dogs and take good care of them,'” Ybarita said.
Since then, Blacky and his family have received tremendous support from the community, including donations of food, pet supplies, and more. While Blacky may not know it, it has changed the future for him, his family, and a very lucky girl. To learn more about helping stray dogs in the Philippines, follow Hope for Strays on Facebook.
