Ovidiu Iftode was bicycling near his home in Romania when his 13-year-old dog found several puppies thrown into a shallow river. Unable to bring them home, Ovidiu did what he could for the puppies on that first day. When he returned the next day, he discovered to his horror that the puppies had been taken and thrown into the river a second time. But the five puppies had a guardian angel in Ovidiu, who recounts how he came to rescue the puppies three separate times and eventually got them out of harm's way. It should be noted that discarding unwanted puppies is a common occurance in Romania. Ovidiu wrote, "It's pretty disgusting I know, but the way people think around here is that they'll become stray and attack smaller animals for food." Here is Ovidiu's first-hand account of rescuing the puppies: "So everything started 3 days ago...." "I found a bag of puppies while biking around my house. Somebody had thrown them, probably in a hurry, in a river. They were lucky as they were sitting just 2 centimetres from falling into the water on the bank, as if they knew they were very calm and barely moved. It broke my heart as I had already saved another puppy in the same area just 2 days before and I couldn't take them in." "So I carried them across the road in a corn field, brought some milk and some noms. After eating they became quiet and formed a little ball of puppies and fuzziness and went to sleep. As I went to check on them the next morning I discovered that somebody had taken them from the field and threw them in the river, this time one by one." "The river isn't very deep, but it's deep enough to drown a puppy, their survival instincts kicked in however and they grabbed any twig or stone they could to keep alive. My father and I picked them up, one by one, used some towels to dry them and put them in a box somewhere on one of our lands. far from the roads and river. After feeding them a few times, they went to sleep. Some of the puppies had some weird mud on them...." "As we went to check on them the next morning, to our horror we discovered that somebody had taken the box and threw it in the river along with the puppies. We were however smart enough to cover the box with a plastic bag in case it rained so the box managed to stay afloat and only a small amount of water entered the box. We took them out of the water but the hard part had only just began." "The so called mud turned out to be billions of fly eggs. We began bathing and cleaning them, pulling out the larvae and the fleas. They were in a pretty bad condition and eventually we called a vet that told us of a special solution we should bathe them in. The solution was really strong and we managed to get the larvae and the fleas off them." "After around 5 hours of work with them we were exhausted but not nearly as much as the puppies. The flies left wounds on them where they inserted their larvae, they were on the fur, on the skin and even under it, but the solution we used was so good it killed every insect on them." "We cleaned the dead larvae and fleas and they finally managed to calm down and stop crying. They were so tired they slept for almost 10 hours straight with just a few breaks to pee and poop. This time we settled them in our own yard where you can see them in the pictures." "This one [above] was in the worst condition of them all. He was severely infected by fly larvae and they had also left a pretty big wound on his neck that was filled with eggs. His ears were filled with larvae and he couldn't even open his eyes because of them. Add a huge flea infestation on top of that and it looked pretty grim for him...." "As it turns out however, puppies are as tough as a goddamn tank and with a little help from us with cleaning the wound his ears and eyes he's know 100% larvae and flea free and just as healthy as the others. He's the one sleeping on his back in all the other pictures." "This is the first puppy I took from the same river just two days before this happened. He was in a slightly better condition. After washing and treating him for fleas almost a month old he began showing to us what a smart little puppy he is, never peeing or pooping inside and always telling us when he needed food or outside." "Living in a shitty '2nd World' country, Romania, I get to see stuff like this all the time and it's pretty heartbreaking. And even though they didn't drown they are still far from saved because more often than not animal shelters are synonymous with death sentences here. Luckily, we already found an owner for him." "For the time being we decided to name him Cerberus...for obvious reasons. His other two heads will grow just give him time. Anyway, the fact that someone went out of his way to try and kill 5 two-week old puppies three times shows the kind of problems our country faces when it comes to pets." "Cerberus ferociously biting me. Throwing and killing puppies and kittens is far too common here, people only want 1 or 2 dogs around their houses and will kill or throw away any puppies that are born. They are also too lazy to spay or neuter them. Kittens are killed because they often kill chicks or ducks (which they do because people don't feed them and expect them to hunt birds and mice.)" "This is my 13 year old dog, Laika. I took her off the streets when she was 1 year old. She's extremely intelligent and well behaved and she's had a strong impact on my childhood. You know...try and be the person your dog thinks you are." "She's the one that actually found the bag of puppies and she's been very protective of them, guarding and overseeing them ever since we put them in our yard. At the end of the day maybe 6 puppies won't make a huge difference for the many thousands in the same situation but for them the world has changed forever. I hope it inspires you to do the same should you ever come across animals in need of help :)." Photos and text reprinted with permission from Ovidiu Iftode.
Read more at http://www.dogheirs.com/dogsarefamily/posts/3784-compassionate-man-rescues-5-puppies-thrown-in-river-photos#AfmRX04E8DUxPPG5.99