A woman was surprised and grateful when she received a call from a stranger to tell her she had been chosen to be the guardian of a dog that belonged to a man she had met years before.
Casandra Lynn runs an animal shelter, Community Effort Animal Rescue, in Littlerock, California and is, needless to say, an animal lover. That’s why she was declared the perfect person to take care of a special furry friend.
She had met the previous owner in a pantry before picking up her dog after his death.
In a TikTok video, Casandra explains that the dog’s owner was a stranger to her until a few years ago.
“We met Larry and his dog Junior in 2018, we saw them every week at [a] pantry,” she wrote in the caption of the video. After meeting him, Lynn and her family grew closer to Larry. A look at Lynn’s Facebook page proves that she and her family have done their best to support Larry since they met him.
“We have spent every week with him for the past 2 years,” she wrote in a FEBRUARY Facebook post from 2019 in which she also asked her followers to help find Larry who recently had a health problem and disappeared. She soon discovered that he was in the hospital because his heart had stopped. Fortunately, hospital staff performed 11 minutes of CPR, successfully resuscitating him.
After his health scare, Larry overcame a great achievement by coming out of homelessness in 2020, as Lynn revealed in his TikTok caption. But, tragically, his new life was short-lived.
Larry died suddenly, leaving Lynn to care for her dog.
Lynn told her TikTok followers that after years of being friends with Larry, a call from a stranger broke her heart.
“‘Hello, you don’t know me, but our mutual friend passed away and he said if anything ever happens to him to bring his dog to you, can you take him?'” Lynn says the unknown caller told him said. In the video, Lynn is next to Junior, cuddling and holding him tight. “He sits and looks for his father,” she wrote.
Lynn has taken it upon herself to find a foster home for Junior that will make him feel as safe and loved as Larry once did.
“I hope one of Larry’s closest friends from the church he was active in can soon welcome Junior into his family. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll take care of him until I can. find him a family to spend his last years with,” she posted on Facebook.
“Sending all our love for the loss of Larry. Thank you for selflessly welcoming his one true love,” someone commented. “You were so special to Larry that he trusted you with his Babe. I’m sorry for your loss,” added another.
According to the ASPCA, 3.1 million dogs enter shelters each year – and each year 390,000 dogs are euthanized.
Fortunately, places like Lynn’s Community Effort Animal Rescue provide a sanctuary for these foster animals. Kill shelters are still prevalent, so people looking for a dog should always consider adoption. Dogs like Junior deserve owners as caring as Larry.
Ethan Cotler is a writer living in Boston. He writes about entertainment and current affairs.