Last week, workers near the town of Suwałki, Poland, heard something that made them concerned. From a remote, wooded area in the distance, a dog was barking nonstop, as if calling out for help.
Fortunately, the workers decided to heed those cries — following the sound until it led here:
There, stranded in a puddle of sticky tar and unable to move, was a dog in desperate need of assistance.
Unable to extricate the trapped pup themselves, the workers contacted rescuer Joanna Godlewska, from the Niczyje Animal Foundation. She raced to the scene, not knowing what to expect.
“When I finally arrived and saw a dog lying in the tar, tears came to my eyes,” Godlewska told The Dodo.
It is believed that the dog, perhaps abandoned, was seeking warmth when he happened upon the illegally-dumped tar — not realizing that, upon lying down atop it, he would become hopelessly stuck.
No one knows how long the dog had been there, but it was clear he wouldn’t have survived much longer. His spirit was quickly fading.
Godlewska was joined by a crew from the local fire department to assist in getting him out. As they worked, a glimmer of hope appeared in the trapped pup’s eyes.
“He understood that we were saving him,” Godlewska said.
Rescuers carefully cut away the most tar-gripped portions of the poor dog’s fur and used cooking oil to loosen the rest.
Then, at long last, they were finally able to lift him out.
The dog was rushed to a vet clinic to be treated for exhaustion, and to have as much of the remaining tar as possible scrubbed away from his body.
It was messy work, to say the least.
Thankfully, aside from a couple of superficial injuries to one side of his face, the dog was found to be in mostly good health.
Since then, the dog has undergone several more cleaning sessions — after each of which, his sweet spirit continues to grow stronger.
“He feels better and better,” Godlewska said.
Ultimately, the dog, now named Farcik, was rescued from more than just the sticky death trap he’d been found in.
Now, he was alone and unloved no longer.
Farcik still has some recovering left to do, but he’s surrounded by people who care about him and his future.
When the time is right, Godlewska intends to adopt him into a loving forever home.
What led up to Farcik’s near-fatal ordeal in the tar may never be known — but there’s no doubt that his will to live, and to alert the right people to his plight, made all the difference.