How I Met Your Doggo: Cutest Rescue Stories Online

The Internet can be dark, scary and filled with exceptionally mean people and comments, but at times it can also be exactly what you need to feel better. It is the easiest method to interact with that delicious feel-good content, whatever that content is for you.

Now, whatever your go-to feel-good content is, there is one thing most — if not all — human beings can agree on: animal rescue stories are the top tier of said goodness. Because it’s about the truth of human kindness AND it is about animals. Best combo, am I right?

I needed that serotonin boost, so I rounded up five of the best animal rescue stories of 2018 and 2019 that went viral, and decided to share them with you. Let’s dive into it.

The good boy and his ducks

One of the rescue stories that spread around the absolute most in the first half of 2018 was the story of Fred, the then 10-year-old resident dog of the Mountfitchet Castle (a tourist attraction in Essex, United Kingdom) that adopted a bunch of orphaned ducklings.

They slept in his dog basket, followed him for swims, and rode around the area atop his back.

Even more beautifully, he has adopted other ducklings since, and seems to feel like a real duck parent. You go, Fred.

The good boy and an amazing cyclist

Jarret Little, a dedicated biker/cyclist, found an injured dog in the woods when he was, well, cycling — far off from the city, too, out in the woods.

He did not call any services, he did not panic, he did not just stop and sit with it there… He put the dog on his back and cycled all the way back to the city (around seven miles) to take the dog to a veterinarian.

If you think the cuteness of this story ends here — think again! Little stopped on his way to get the dog some food and water, and Andrea Shaw, the woman that worked in the store they visited, immediately volunteered to adopt the dog.

The dog’s name is now Columbo, and he’s very happy in his forever home; he even has a public Facebook page!

The good sausage boy

Elmer the dachsund’s rescue story is not one of a kind — sadly, but also beautifully so. Sadly because abuse and neglet are rampant issues. Beautifully so, because a lot of the poor victims of those issues are getting their second chances.

He was found with a broken and rotting jawbone, his eyes crusted over and, overall, in complete neglect.

Now, after the Danny & Ron Rescue stepped in, and one of the staff members adopted the good little boy, Elmer is thriving and even participating in dachsund races! Let’s cheer him on!

Another good forest boy

Another huge viral rescue story that happened in early 2019 and went absolutely viral with tens of thousands of retweets and hundreds of thousands of likes.

Larry the puppy was found by a US Army Marine veteran Tegan in rural Wisconsin.

The poor puppy — who was the runt of his litter, as it was later discovered — had to survive a night out in wintry Wisconsin with no food or shelter, and he was quite lucky that Tegan noticed any movement while driving through the area at all.

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His sisters were happy to see him when reunited, and now he’s living luxuriously with Tegan who ended up adopting him; he even has his own Instagram account. So there’s that.

The good Romanian girl

Rescuing dogs from Romania is a very big thing in the UK right now: it’s easier because a lot of the UK shelters won’t allow people with full time jobs to adopt; it’s also useful because there’s a lot of abandoned stray rescues in Romania — like in a lot of ex-communist countries.

There is some vitriol aimed at that from people in the UK (the usual ‘You should have adopted here!’ and ‘God knows what diseases they have over there!’) but the anger of some people doesn’t take away from the wholesomeness of the acts of rescue and adoption.

That brings us to Harper, or as she was renamed with adoption — Finya.

Finya was rescued from a public pound by the organisation Howl of a Dog in earlier 2019, where she was at risk of being put down. She was underweight, starved, cold and, overall, lived in quite terrible conditions, which resulted in a whole bouquet of health issues.

After healing up she started opening up, and became an amazingly playful and friendly little baby — and ended up being adopted out to Germany! Hooray to Finya — no more cold concrete floors!