SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida woman on a horseback ride rescued a dog she found alone, abandoned and in bad shape in rural Southwest Miami-Dade.
Michelle Negron took it upon herself to embark on the rescue mission when she saw the dog limping while riding her horse on a trail.
“And of course, I’m in the middle of freakin’ nowhere, and there’s puppy limping. Hi!” she said as she took a video of her unusual and likely life-saving find.
Negron said she found the dog alone near the edge of the Everglades.
“I thought he was gonna die. I was like, ‘If I would leave you here, you’re gonna die,'” she said.
This part of the Redlands is rural, so Negron figured the dog probably didn’t just get out, but he was most likely abandoned by his family. She knew immediately that she had to bring the pup back home with her.
“There’s no houses, there’s no cars. I was with them for 20 minutes trying to get them to let me get the dog on the horse,” Negron said in the cellphone video. “I managed to throw him up into the saddle, I held him with one hand, and then, trying to put my foot in the stirrup, I held his body with my other leg and then I managed to throw myself over and just hold him.”
Negron said the dog was “so tired that he literally just let me pick him up, and the whole way here he was just limp.”
After some love, attention and a new toy, Colt, which he’s been named, was good as new.
“I got him some water. There’s a video where he’s jumping up and down, he’s super excited to be out, and he was a different dog,” Negron said.
Negron shared the story on social media, hoping to find him a forever home. Luckily, Forever Bully Love Rescue near Orlando agreed to take in the abandoned pup and do just that. On Friday, Colt headed north.
Negron said she was happy to be in the right place at the right time and hopes that people will think twice before abandoning man’s best friend.
“Animals aren’t disposable. They’re not something you can say one day ‘I want it’ and the next day that you don’t,” she said.
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