"...she was abandoned to die and chose me to save her."
David Foster may be a busy man from the United Kingdom with employment that takes him everywhere the planet, but first and foremost, he’s an animal lover. Although he enjoys the work he does, his real passion is bringing joy to shelter animals.
“All this travelling is boring, so I might attend local animal shelters wherever I'll be and provides a couple of toys or balls for his or her animals.”
Eventually, David’s family and friends began giving him dog toys to need alongside him on his business trips, and his hobby eventually grew into his passion project, Play for Strays. He accepts donations of toys from his followers and personally delivers them to shelters everywhere the planet.
As busy as he's, David decided it had been time for a vacation, and booked his “trip of a lifetime” to the Amazon. He had been looking forward thereto for an extended, long time, but he didn’t realize what proportion it might change his life.
David’s trip would take him through remote parts of the rainforests, far away from civilization and into places people rarely step foot. It had been in one among these lonely places that David saved a life.
“When we stopped at this random island, the plan was to travel swimming and snorkeling, then have a lunch, idyllic really. Whilst on the boat, within the distance, I could see what I assumed was some jagged bogwood. As I grabbed my binoculars to require a better look, I could tell immediately that it had been a dog. At this point Hugo, the boat owner, was twiddling with his new toy, a drone, and that I told him a dog was there. He originally dismissed it as a dog from an area community or a farm and kept the drone hovering over the blokes snorkeling.”
David knew that the dog couldn’t have wandered from some nearby community, and so the owner of the boat confirmed it when he flew his drone higher – there have been no communities nearby in the least. This was the center of the Jungle. It took us two hours to urge to this point from a small community and that we had another two hours to urge to subsequent town.”
“As the blokes who were snorkeling came back on the rowboat Negrita plunged into the water, so I leapt off the boat and spent to the beach where she came towards me. It had been a pitiful sight and I’m surprised she had the energy to swim and run thus far. On reaching me she cried, and I’ve no shame in admitting that I almost did too. Such a pitiful sight.”
Who knows how long it had been since she had last seen a person's being. Though she managed to swim and run to David, the dog could hardly walk. It had been nearly 100°F out that day. Poor Negrita had been severely neglected and misused. She was extremely thin, covered in fleas and ticks, and her ears were cut and sliced. David estimates she only had each day or two of life left in her once they found one another. She was so on the brink of death that vultures had begun to pursue her, expecting her to die. “No way could I leave her here to defend herself, no way.”
David and another member of the expedition took food bent her, and David was given permission by Hugo to feed her some steak and tie her up at the front of the boat in order that he could take her for veterinary care in the next town, Nhamunda. Before they arrived, though, David learned that there wouldn't be an appropriate vet therein town, and decided to bring her along until proper medical aid might be had.
“We docked at Nhamunda for dinner and that I checked her below decks every 20 minutes approximately. Then on one check she was gone, I had a flash of panic but she was right there on the beach. I jumped off the boat, gave a whistle and she or he came straight back. I tied her extra tight to the bemusement of the local fishermen who think I’m crazy.”
“As I visited bed, and prepared to possess a final check, she was gone again! Rope still attached, but she was gone. It had been coal black now and that I had no way of finding her. So I set my alarm to travel off before sunrise to travel search for her.”
“Unbeknown to me the boat starts and leaves even earlier. I leapt out of my bunk to ascertain the shore disappear into the space .”
David was incredibly angry and wanting to return , but he wasn’t ready to speak with the owner of the boat for an hour after he realized they were on the move. Hugo told David that that they had come too far, but David begged and pleaded, and Hugo changed his mind on the condition that everybody else on the expedition comply with return. David offered to buy the value of the fuel for the trip back.
When he finally made it back to where that they had been the night before, he found Negrita waiting on the beach patiently, exactly where the boat had been docked.
“One quick whistle and she or he was within the boat, I didn’t even need to get out!”
They rejoined the expedition and made their way onward to subsequent town, Oriximiniá. David was ready to buy everything he needed to worry about a dog, but was still unable to seek out an honest vet. He bought medicated shampoos and parasite drops, and with the help of local children, bathed Negrita and picked off the ticks he could.
“We are still days faraway from a correct vet clinic in Santarém at now . She seems tons happier at now but still very itchy and unwell.”
During all of this, David had made a significant decision. His heart had broken when he found the sickly Canis Minor , but since he found her it had been mending, and he had become dedicated to her well-being.
“I have decided to urge her to the united kingdom . Dogs aren't loved here like we neutralize the united kingdom . My heart wouldn’t allow her to remain .”
There were a couple of more hurdles to leap before she would be ready to join him, though, the most important being her health. She was finally ready to see a veterinarian when the expedition reached the town of Santarém. The vet told David that tests would be run to work out whether she carried any diseases. “Her tests included canine leishmaniasis and cinomosis… i used to be warned that if she tested positive for leishmaniasis they might destroy her without hesitation.”
David waited for what he calls “The longest 24 hours of my life!” but Negrita’s test results came back negative!
David has since cut his trip-of-a-lifetime short, cancelling a second expedition through the Amazon for Negrita’s sake. because of his work with Play For Strays, he was ready to meet an honest foster for her in Sao Paulo while he makes arrangements and goes through the long, bureaucratic process required to need her home. He’s not doing it alone, though. His followers are extremely supportive, and have even helped raise funds to bring his “Amazon Girl” home.
“Since my return many have asked me ‘why bother, there’s numerous dogs here to save?’ My reply is that I’ve seen many dogs in shelters, but they're safe, fed and hopefully loved. Stray dogs in cities also are a prevalent sight, but they will potentially find food,” David says. “Negrita was beaten and left for dead during a place where she couldn’t survive, albeit she tried. She wasn’t a stray, she was abandoned to die and chose me to save lots of her. it's going to take time, but i will be able to roll in the hay .”
You can follow David and Negrita’s story because it continues at Play for Strays’ Facebook page, or help David bring Negrita home to the United Kingdom at GoFundMe.
UPDATE: According to Facebook, Negrita has been cleared to go home to her rescuer David in the UK! We wish this girl a secure trip and an extended and happy life as well as her wonderful human. Doesn’t she look beautiful?!