When a puppy named Gunnar was just 7 weeks old, he was left to fend for himself in the middle of nowhere. Animal control had recently passed through and rescued his mom and all of his siblings, but mistakenly had not taken Gunnar with them.
As soon as Sidewalk Specials, a dog rescue based in De Doorns, South Africa, heard about Gunnar, they rushed over to help.
Gunnar had been completely by himself with no one taking care of him for an entire week. So Rachael Sylvester, founder of Sidewalk Specials, didn’t know what kind of shape he was going to be in.
“He’d had a week of being cold and scared and alone,” Sylvester told The Dodo.
As she walked up to the tiny puppy, she noticed he was holding something in his mouth: a piece of bread that was almost bigger than he was. Sylvester was surprised to find that despite how exhausted, terrified and hungry he must have been, he was still happy to see her.
“[He was] still wagging his tail, still happy to see us, still wanting to share his piece of bread,” Sylvester said.
Sylvester knew that despite Gunnar’s brave face, he needed help. She rushed him to a vet, where they found he was doing even worse than they’d initially thought.
“Gunnar [was] anemic and suffering from tick bite fever, having one of the worst worm and tick infestations [we’d] seen,” Sidewalk Specials wrote on Facebook. “He also [had] an eye infection requiring attention.”
After an overnight stay at the vet and some intensive medical treatments, Gunnar started feeling better.
“His absolutely positive attitude kept him going,” Sylvester said.
Gunnar stayed with a foster family for just a week before he was adopted by his mom, Freya. He immediately felt comfortable with his new life and happy with his new family.
“He wasn’t difficult to open up to us at all,” Freya told The Dodo.
It’s now been years since Freya adopted Gunnar. Since he was rescued, he’s discovered he has a favorite hobby: hunting for rocks.
“He first goes around and searches for the right rock,” Freya said. “And then he brings it to you.”
The circumstances Gunnar was rescued from are in the distant past. Now, he spends his days playing, going on walks and, most importantly, being loved.
