Ben Madilynn
Animal lovers have rallied to help unite a blind shelter dog with his adopter after she was seriously injured on the way to rescue him.
Los Angeles charity Let’s Rescue Dogs shared the jaw-dropping story to their Instagram page @lets.rescue.dogs in October, along with photos of a small, fluffy dog named Basil.
Basil, who can’t see, had waited a year to find a forever home, and eventually found one with a woman in Sacramento, who instantly fell in love with him.
She made plans to drive to Los Angeles to take Basil home, but as the shelter wrote in their post, on the day she was due to collect him, there was “radio silence.”
The next day, “we woke up to the most gut wrenching messages from her friends and family”—that the woman and her friend had been hit by another car on the drive to collect Basil.
She had received serious head injuries, they wrote, and was put in a medically induced coma for a full week. While she now has to “relearn how to do a lot of things we all take for granted,” the shelter said, “one thing that didn’t change is the love she has for Basil.”
Because, they revealed, her family told the shelter she still wants to adopt him, and the shelter is “determined to make this happen.”
They pleaded for anyone who might be traveling from L.A. to Sacramento, an almost 400-mile journey, to contact them, so Basil can “finally be with” his adopter.
Sharing their email address—lets.rescue.dogsLA@gmail.com—they thanked everyone for their support, and shared a video montage filled with different clips of shelter dog Basil, relaxing on blankets, getting cuddles, awaiting to be united with his adopter.
The post resonated hugely with animal lovers, racking up close to 100,000 likes, as one commenter called it a “truly amazing and heartbreaking story all at one time.”
One shared their prayers that the woman “recovers fully and gets to spend a good life with Basil,” and another wrote: “What a beautiful human being. Praying for both.”
There were also plenty of offers to help, and days later the shelter shared an update, writing: “Words can’t express how grateful we are that hundreds of the most beautiful people found our last post about Basil.”
Instagram @lets.rescue.dogs
They thanked everyone who has offered to help, but explained they are “critically low on funds and we need to raise the gas money to get Basil to Sacramento. If you can spare even a dollar, it would help tremendously.”
Let’s Rescue Dogs describes themselves as a nonprofit, saving dogs listed to be euthanized at high-kill shelters, and finding them “loving forever homes.”
According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), around 6.3 animals enter shelters in the U.S. each year.
Around 920,000 animals, including 390,000 dogs and 530,000 cats, are euthanized in shelters each year, but the number has declined from around 2.6 million in 2011, the ASPCA states.
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