Helping a lost dog find her way back home can be as simple as reading her tags. Then, of course, it’s just a matter of earning the dog’s trust and coaxing her into your car! Sadly, not all lost animals can be returned so smoothly.
When a Kentucky woman saw a dog in a bad spot, she and her family did what they’d done so many times with stray animals before: offered help. But what should’ve been a simple pick-up-and-return mission turned into a heartbreaking predicament that forced her to make some tough decisions…
Melissa Ringstaff and her family have a motto: “We can’t save the world, but we can do something about the one in front of us.” And when it comes to animals, that’s truly the motto they live by.
Melissa Ringstaff / Facebook
The philosophy regularly encouraged the family to help animals. They often scooped up lost animals wandering around Harlan, Kentucky, fed them, and found them homes. Such was the case with a certain Great Pyrenees…
Melissa Ringstaff / Facebook
Early on a Saturday morning, the Ringstaff family cruised down the highway, a 2-hour drive ahead. But in the opposite lane, they noticed a great, hulking dog, lying still in the road. Cars swerved to avoid him.
The Ringstaffs were concerned that the dog had been hit by a car. Melissa’s husband Mykal, a pastor, flipped on the car’s hazards lights and pulled the truck over. They got out of the vehicle to inspect the canine.
Melissa Ringstaff / Facebook; Melissa Ringstaff / YouTube
But as soon as Melissa and her gang stepped into the road the dog stood up and walked over to them, curiously showing no sign of injury. It was then Melissa saw the heartbreaking reason the dog was staying so still…
Off in the ditch lining the highway, another dog had been hit by a car. Tragically, he didn’t live to tell the tale. By the looks of it, the dog in the road had been guarding his fallen friend. The sight “broke my heart,” Melissa wrote.
The Ringstaffs tried luring the dog into their truck, but he refused to leave his friend behind. Heartbroken, the family left the stubborn pooch for the moment (they were, after all, on a day trip). But ten hours later, they returned.
Melissa Ringstaff / Facebook
The dog hadn’t left, though he’d moved out of the road. So, committed to saving the world in front of them, the Ringstaffs hoisted the massive dog into their truck. Like so many other lost dogs, they’d find his home, too.
Melissa Ringstaff / YouTube
But as the Ringstaffs drove with the dog in their truck, searching for the collarless dog’s home, local after local told the same story—one as tragic as the lost dog’s situation.
Melissa Ringstaff / YouTube
Those dogs, the locals explained, belonged to someone who moved away. They left the dogs behind to fend for themselves, leading to one’s demise. The abandoned and lonely Great Pyrenees had no home to return to.
Worse, the dogs had apparently been living on the side of the highway for a couple of days. So, hearts broken once more, the animal-loving Melissa and her family knew what they had to do: make this dog’s world a better place.
The Ringstaffs brought the dog home, fed him, bathed him, and gave him a haircut. When night fell, she led him to a brand new kennel. But the dog didn’t sleep.
Melissa Ringstaff / YouTube
Instead, he broke from the kennel in the dead of night and disappeared from the Ringstaff home. The second Melissa spotted the kennel with a now-broken door, the family went out searching for him. It should’ve been easy. It’s not like the big dog was in disguise…
All day, the Ringstaffs searched, asking everyone they passed if they’d seen an enormous dog teetering along. They drove to the Humane Society and police stations. They couldn’t find the Great Pyrenees anywhere.
Melissa Ringstaff / Facebook
In fact, the Ringstaffs spent three days looking for the dog, putting over 100 miles on their car driving around the small Kentucky town. Finally, they spotted the pooch.
Just a few miles from the Ringstaff home, the pooch sat on a stranger’s porch, happy to see Melissa and her kids! The next day, Melissa bought him dog tags—with his new name.
At first inspired by the 2009 film Hachi: A Dog’s Tale, below, they called him Hachi. Like the dog in the film, Melissa wrote, “we’d found him loyally staying with his buddy who died.” But they ultimately chose a happier name.
“In the end,” Melissa wrote, “we named him Tucker.” Though simple, the name somehow perfectly fit the dog’s personality. “He’s incredibly sweet, very gentle, and we’ve yet to hear him bark.” He’s Tucker. And he’s a Ringstaff.
Melissa Ringstaff / YouTube
As the Ringstaffs proved, sometimes just driving down the road can lead to some interesting encounters. And if you ask this Pennsylvania couple, it’s out in the middle of nowhere that you find some of the most unexpected things.
One afternoon, a woman named Danielle Finley and her boyfriend were cruising along a dirt road in rural Pennsylvania when they experienced one such startling encounter that changed their lives forever.
Chris Baird / Flickr
Initially, the couple noticed a strange-looking creature trotting alongside the dirt road. Danielle swore it looked somewhat like a hyena, but she knew it couldn’t have been one. After all, they were in Pennsylvania, not the African Serengeti!
Margate Architecture
To investigate, they decided to pull over to see what it was and if it needed their assistance. They both stepped out of the car… and once they saw what the mysterious creature was, their hearts simply broke.
It was a small Cairn terrier! When he saw Danielle and her boyfriend, he ran right up to them as fast as he could and immediately started jumping for joy. Still, the couple couldn’t help but stare in horror at the dog’s physical appearance. He was missing tufts of fur, and it looked as though he hadn’t eaten in days.
Danielle Finley / Facebook
At first, Danielle was hesitant to touch the dog, whom they later named Phil. They already had two canines of their own in the car with them, and it appeared as though Phil had a skin condition. They didn’t want to spread anything to their animals or themselves.
Danielle Finley / Facebook
Still, Danielle and her boyfriend were animal lovers through and through. So they took a risk and scooped up the little pooch, placing him in the backseat of their car. They gave him bowls of food and water, which he licked clean within minutes. They then rushed to the nearest veterinarian for a thorough examination.
Danielle Finley / Facebook
They had assumed Phil was riddled with mange, a contagious skin condition caused by mites burrowing into the flesh, but the veterinarian actually came to a different conclusion. It was simply a severe condition that caused Phil’s hair to fall out and his body to develop rashes.
Danielle Finley / Facebook
There had been no reports of a missing terrier in any of the local newspapers, but the veterinarian told Danielle and her boyfriend that she was fairly certain the dog had belonged to someone up until fairly recently. In other words, he wasn’t a stray.
Danielle Finley / Facebook
Based on Phil’s ground-down teeth, the vet assumed he was most likely kept in a crate for most of his life. Whoever his owner had been probably kept him locked up for years—and then they dumped him on an empty back road when his health issues became serious.
Danielle Finley / Facebook
It was an unfortunate fact, but many areas in rural Pennsylvania were known for having some of the worst puppy mills in the country. Thus, it was highly likely that Phil once belonged to one.
Danielle Finley / Facebook
After the trip to the vet’s office, Danielle and her boyfriend decided they couldn’t just abandon him like his previous owner did—so they adopted Phil right on the spot! They started him on a special diet to help regrow his fur, and within a few weeks, the pup already looked healthier and happier.
Danielle Finley / Facebook
They were also incredibly lucky that their two dogs took to Phil almost instantly. The three now spend their days playing together outdoors, and Phil seemed to develop an especially strong relationship with Lily, the couple’s Boston terrier.
Danielle Finley / Facebook
Danielle’s boyfriend, although initially concerned about taking in yet another dog, now embraces Phil as one of his own. He treats all three of the animals as if they had been together from the very beginning.
Danielle Finley / Facebook
From the start, the couple never let Phil’s physical deformities prevent them from seeing his beauty. They were smitten with the Cairn terrier almost immediately, and now they can’t picture their lives without him. It’s a shame that not all dogs are as lucky.
Danielle Finley / Facebook