Man Found A Puppy Living In A Shoe, So He Took Her Home And Changed Her Life

“They share the same fate as a legless doll that bored a child,” Marinkovic once wrote on Facebook about a group of stray dogs. He’d discovered them wandering around a dump, eating garbage and anything else they could find. Sometimes, his pleas on social media for people to rescue these animals are answered.

But more times than not, there are simply too many strays living in such horrible conditions for them to all be adopted. That’s why Marinkovic is determined to help as many of these poor animals as he possibly can, even if it means occasionally going hungry himself.

“In Podgorica I bought [stray dogs] 6 kg of sausages [and] granules and since there were a lot more [dogs] than I thought, we were left without our sandwiches, pie, bread and poppy seeds,” he wrote on Facebook. Still, his own hunger was nothing compared to what the strays face every day.

The most heartbreaking part of Marinkovic’s day is if he happens to come across a dog who has succumbed to the harsh living conditions. Whenever this happens, he recommits himself to finding these animals a forever home. And one day, he was finally able to make this dream a reality.

It all started like any other day for the animal-lover: Marinkovic, dog food in hand, was walking through the streets of Kraljevo. He was surrounded by hungry strays, cats and dogs alike, all of whom barked and meowed for a bite of food. The grass was covered with trash, from old food wrappers to cardboard boxes.

Marinkovic had since gotten used to the sounds of the dogs and cats fighting over food. And the sight of the ground covered in trash, though infuriating, wasn’t unusual. What was unusual was the sound Marinkovic heard coming from behind a pile of rocks. It almost sounded like...crying.

Marinkovic had heard the sound before, but it was usually drowned out by the older, louder dogs. This was the sound of a puppy, and clearly, it was in trouble. So Marinkovic followed the sound as best he could until he found himself in front of the pile of rocks. With a jolt, he became aware of a terrible smell.

He knew it immediately — more trash. But when the trash started to move, Marinkovic knew he had stumbled upon something special...and very small. Out of the trash popped a fist-sized brown head with tiny, barely-open eyes. The puppy peered up at Marinkovic, clearly scared, but too tired to run.

Marinkovic was immediately struck by the puppy’s awful living conditions. “She was cold, hungry, and thirsty,” he described. And no wonder — the streets of Kraljevo are often freezing and overrun with unruly strays. Plus, this pup didn’t appear to be old enough to find her own food yet. Where was her mother?

There were no other dogs around. As far as Marinkovic could tell, the pup had been surviving with only trash to keep her warm...until he noticed an old shoe lying nearby. It was old and weathered, but the perfect size for a little puppy who needed to escape from the elements. 

Before he could investigate the puppy’s living conditions any further, Marinkovic got to work feeding the poor pup. “I had food, so right away I gave her salami,” he said. The salami was no doubt the best meal the poor pup had ever had. But when Marinkovic got closer to the puppy to give her more food, she did something odd.

As Marinkovic described, as soon as he got close to the puppy, she did something many animals do in times of desperation: she rolled over onto her back and put her belly in the air. Having come across enough stray pups in his life to know for sure, Marinkovic knew immediately why she showed him her belly.

“She knew that I might be her only chance, so she lay down and surrendered to fate,” Marinkovic explained. The poor puppy had barely lived life at all, and already she was too tired to go on. Even the most heartless passerby wouldn’t be able to turn away from such a sad sight, so naturally, Marinkovic jumped to action.

After feeding her, Marinkovic gently took the puppy into his arms. The old shoe she’d been huddling inside for shelter was far from a suitable home. There was no way she’d survive much longer out in the cold, so there was just one option: he had to get her some help, and soon.

In addition to her small size and obvious shivering, the puppy also seemed to be ill, and could barely walk. So, Marinkovic’s first move was to take her to the vet. The more he helped the little puppy, the more he connected with her. In spite of himself, he gave the puppy a name.

Marinkovic knew he couldn’t keep the puppy forever — he had quite a few dogs at home already — but that didn’t stop him from naming the puppy Smesten. And to his relief, Smesten was given a clean bill of health from the vet. All she needed to recover was decent food and a warm bed, things Marinkovic was more than happy to provide.

When Marinkovic shared Smesten’s story on Facebook, tons of people reached out asking if they could be Smesten’s new family. But Marinkovic knew that the little survivor couldn’t end up with just anyone. Plus, Smesten’s experience with other people up until she met Marinkovic had been rocky, to say the least.

“[She] was thrown out by bad people who literally left [her] in the dump,” he explained. It’s understandable how Smesten and Marinkovic were both hesitant to trust strangers, but Marinkovic knew that the time had come for her to find her forever home. And as Smesten grew stronger, she seemed more excited about the idea, too.

“She loves people,” Marinkovic wrote of the dog on Facebook. “She’s always cheerful.” But it wasn’t until Marinkovic reached out to international animal adoption agencies that he finally found the perfect home for Smesten. She was given her vaccination shots, hugged one more time by Marinkovic, and then sent to her new family.

Thankfully, the story doesn’t end there. Marinkovic was quick to give an update about the puppy’s life on Facebook, and what he revealed probably made more than a few people tear up. At her new home in Germany, Smesten is now named “Coco” — and according to Marinkovic, her name isn’t the only thing that’s changed.

Coco is now completely unrecognizable from the tiny, shivering pup Marinkovic discovered in an old shoe. “[Coco] has a beautiful home and she is currently on vacation. I get pictures regularly,” he said. The photos of a happy and healthy Coco are a welcomed reminder to Marinkovic that his efforts on the streets of Kraljevo aren’t in vain.

Now, Coco is “safe and carefree and most of all loved,” as Marinkovic wrote on Facebook, but his quest to save more dogs from the street continues. “Their numbers are constantly rising,” he wrote of the many strays running around the neighborhood. Thankfully, Marinkovic's pleas for people to help rescue abandoned animals are finally being heard.

Marinkovic's goal in life is to rescue as many dogs as he can from the streets. Melissa Ringstaff and her family have their own 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, Melissa and Marinkovic are definitely on the same page.

This philosophy regularly encouraged the Ringstaff 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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 really, from the moment they first spotted him on the side of the road, he was a Ringstaff.

And even though Tucker had taken them on a wild goose chase, they instantly loved him because he'd shown such dedication standing by his fallen friend. Not long after, the Ringstaffs probably heard about a heroic dog whose loyalty was the key factor in someone's survival.

The dog in question was searching on the streets when he came across Junrell Fuentes Revilla riding his motorcycle in Sibonga, the Cebu providence of the Philippines. As Junrell drove, he noticed the dog running alongside his bike. Junrell’s canine companion started barking at him as he drove along a remote section of the road. 

The dog wouldn’t stop following Junrell. They were in the mountains, away from busy streets and other people. The only sign of life, Junrell realized, was the dog’s insistent barking. So, Junrell hit the breaks. When he did, the dog ran right over to him.

Junrell didn’t see anyone else around. It was just him and this weird dog who, no matter what Junrell did, refused to stop barking. For all he knew, the animal was sick or crazy. But there was something about the fierce look in the dog's eye that piqued Junrell's curiosity.

The dog met Junrell's eyes before turning around and walking in a totally different direction. He walked with such intent that Junrell knew he was supposed to follow the canine. The strange duo walked through the rocky, deserted mountains, the dog's steps quickening by the second.

Finally, Junrell saw something in the distance. The dog got more excited the closer they got to the weird lump on the ground. But when Junrell was finally able to make out the object, he couldn't help but feel disappointed: it was just a bundle of rags laying in the dirt.

Well, he thought the lump was just a bundle of rags...until it moved. Junrell could tell that something was twisted inside of the blankets, but he wasn’t sure what it was. It wasn't until a loud cry sounded from inside the pile of rags that Junrell knew the dog had led him to something extraordinary.

“To Revilla’s surprise, he found a baby wrapped in a brown towel,” Gea Ybarita, a staff member at the rescue organization Hope for Strays in the Philippines, said in an interview. “The location where the baby was found is isolated since it's on the top of the mountain.”

Junrell picked up the baby boy. There was no one around besides him and the dog, so he took the screaming infant with him. He sped to the police station and the Department of Social Welfare took charge of the situation. When the doctors removed the rags, what they saw was jaw-dropping.

They knew immediately that this baby was a newborn. In fact, he was so new to the world that when the doctors removed the rags, the baby still had his umbilical cord attached! While Junrell and the world waited for news about the baby's condition, however, the spotlight turned to his four-legged savior.

Some nearby animal rescue organizations, including Hope for Strays and the PAWssion Project, learned about the brave mountain dog and decided to try to save him. Hope for Strays is an independent nonprofit group that focuses on immediate rescue, though this would be a challenge unlike any other.

The PAWssion Project is a nonprofit founded by a single woman, Malou Perez. She and her growing volunteer group rehabilitate and rehome dogs. You can get into many stressful situations in this line of work, but none of them had every heard of such an extraordinary case.

Domesticated animals are kept as pets in the Philippines, but the government’s animal control organization isn’t doing its part to save animals. Filipino actress and animal rights advocate Carla Abellana recently shed light on this issue. Carla wanted her Instagram followers to understand a dog or cat’s fate in the city pound.

“There’s a pound at pretty much every city in the Philippines. Each pound has hundreds of cats and dogs,” Carla wrote. “It is our government’s duty to capture strays and bring them to these city pounds to control the stray population.” But the sobering reality that befalls all these stray animals fuels rescue groups to keep going.

Because of the difficult situation, the work that Filipino dog rescue organizations do is incredibly important, like searching for a hero dog in the mountains. Because the dog was alone, the volunteers believed he was a stray. They eventually found the dog, who led the team to a surprising spot.

The dog took the rescuers to his home. He was one of ten dogs that Kuya Lyndon Olingay cares for. Kuya called the hero dog, who was a little more than a year old, Blacky. “We've confirmed he is not a stray at all,” Gea said. Blacky may not be a stray, but Kuya himself was in need.

“[Kuya] stated, ‘No matter how hard life is, even though I'm poor, I feed all of my dogs and take care of them well,’” Gea said. The volunteers took to social media and local news outlets to ask for donations for Kuya’s family and dogs.

“We will also tap a vet who can go onsite to check the dogs, have them vaccinated and spayed and neutered. We also wish to send 2 sacks of rice, groceries, and milk for the family and dog food for the dogs,” the PAWssion Project wrote on Instagram.

“Should you wish to help honor hero dog by making his loving family happy, you may donate to our fundraising drive,” the PAWssion Project wrote. This brought international attention to the heartwarming story, and empathetic people sent a sea of donations. Meanwhile, they eagerly awaited an update on the little baby...

Thankfully, the little boy was pronounced healthy! Because Blacky did his best to notify Junrell of the baby left on the mountain, the baby didn’t sustain any injuries. The Women and Children’s Protection Desk within the local police department listened to Junrell’s report and immediately investigated the incident.

Social services have since begun caring for the baby. They’re trying to find the boy’s parents or anyone who might have information about who abandoned the child. Until then, Junrell and Blacky are their star witnesses, and thankfully, they're being rewarded as such by the public.

The volunteers returned to the mountains with their sea of donations. “Kuya Lyndon was teary-eyed and could not express how grateful he is,” the PAWssion Project wrote on Facebook. Blacky's altruistic actions ended up helping both his family and a baby boy — he's a rescue dog, indeed.