When you go on vacation, you expect that you will relax on the beach and not have to think about your life away from the sand. Well when David Foster went to the Amazon, that’s probably what he was thinking too.
But he met a dog named Negrita and stopped everything to save her.
Foster spoke to The Dodo and said:
“We were sailing and decided to stop at this beautiful beach. And then off in the distance I saw a dog. I thought, ‘Why is she out here? It seems a bit remote’ … We hadn’t seen any villages for quite some time.”
Foster was unsure how she got there, since the island that they had travelled to was pretty desolate. He hoped she belonged to someone in another tour group, but when he whistled her over, she came without any questions asked.
He recalled, “She came running towards me. That’s when I noticed how bad off she was.”
Negrita was ridden with fleas and ticks and she had a few cuts near her ears. To top that she was also a skeleton of a dog, as you can see from the photos.
Vultures were even circling the air above them, waiting for Negrita to give up. Foster wasn’t going to let that happen though. Foster said that:
“It looked as if someone had beaten her. She was so close to death. She was wagging her tail and crying at the same time.”
Foster knew if he didn’t take Negrita to their boat’s next stop, he would be certainly signing her death certificate. Once they got on the boat, she seemed relieved and laid down to rest a little bit. She probably could never let her guard down after whatever horrid thing happened, so now she could relax.
Once they got to the next town, they found a vet that could help. Thankfully, she didn’t have any traumatic injury just those minor cuts and fleas and ticks. Negrita was so thankful to Foster, she would follow him around for the next four days and not let her savior out of her sight.
Foster knew he had to take her back to England where he actually heads a charity called PlayForStrays. It’s an organization gathers toys for abandoned shelter dogs across the world.
Once the news came out to other PlaysforStrays supporters, donations poured in and eventually Foster had enough money to bring Negrita home! Foster said:
“People from the states, Australia and all over the world were donating toward getting her home. Negrita was so special, and I think that everybody recognized that. They fully rallied around us.”
It took over five months to get paperwork in order to bring Negrita to the UK, but Foster didn’t give up. She had a rough go during her travels, but she was comforted by the abundance of toys.
“She loves her toys. She has one little teddy bear I sent her at Christmas time who is like her baby. She carries it gently and looks after it very well. It’s the only one she won’t destroy.”
Now that she’s safe and sound, Negrita has made a full comeback and is loving her new life in a new country.
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