Earlier this month, as Willians Mollo Flores stepped out to take his dog on an evening walk near his home in Chile, he never imagined he’d wind up saving a life. But he did more than that. He saved two.
While passing by an old construction site, Flores noticed his dog tugging at the leash in a direction off their path. It didn’t take long for Flores to see why.
“My dog guided me towards an abandoned puppy,” Flores told The Dodo. “The dog was howling a lot.”
But, as it turns out, the pup wasn’t trying to get Flores’ attention for his own sake alone.
The spot where the abandoned puppy stood was marked with a number of deep, open holes. And inside one of them was another dog.
He was trapped.
Suddenly, the first dog’s actions all made sense.
“He was asking for help,” Flores said. “His sibling was in a hole, and there was no way he could get out by himself.”
Here’s a glimpse of that harrowing scene:
“I didn’t know how to react,” Flores said. “It was a very tense moment. But I ran home and grabbed water, food, and rope, and then came to the dog’s aid. I climbed into the hole and managed to get the puppy out.”
Once safely out of the hole, the trapped dog ran immediately to his sibling, as if to thank him for his role in getting him rescued.
The dogs ate the food and drank the water Flores had brought, but they were still too weak to follow him home. So, Flores stayed with them there. Over the next four hours, he reached out for aid from others on social media.
That’s where animal rescuer Valeska Torres Tapia learned of the situation. Though by then it was midnight, she still raced to the spot — relieving Flores of his lifesaving post.
“I brought the dogs home,” Tapia told The Dodo. “They were afraid, but I gave them all the love I could show them.”
Once back at her place, Tapia bathed and groomed the dogs. There, she could tell that the loyalty between them, which helped lead to their rescue, was one they deeply shared.
“They are inseparable,” Tapia said. “It’s the most beautiful thing.”
She named them Angel and Salvador.
Though it’s not entirely clear how the dogs ended up alone, with one of them trapped in a hole, Tapia believes they had been abandoned there by the operator of a puppy mill.
It seems that the only thing they knew they could trust was one another.
“They hug each other, take care of each other, and do not let go of each other,” Tapia said. “These two little ones are like conjoined twins because they are always hugging.”
It’s been just a few weeks since Flores and his dog happened upon the hopeless place Angel and Salvador had been abandoned, but they’ve already found a forever home together. Tapia decided to adopt the dogs herself.
“After rescuing a dog, I always try to find them a beautiful family,” she said. “But I know it would be difficult for Angel and Salvador to find a family since they are inseparable. They cannot be separated. So, I will keep them — and I will give them more love than they ever could imagine.”