Homeless Senior Dog Who Rejected Help All His Life Finally Gets Rescued

Hope for Paws, a Los Angeles-based animal rescue group, received a call about a stray eight-year-old senior dog who had been living in a water treatment facility. When they heard his story, the staff knew that, one way or another, they had to save him.

The water treatment facility housed many open tanks full of dangerous chemicals, which made the whole rescue attempt a risky effort for not only the dog, but for the Hope for Paws volunteers, too.

Though the dog, whom the rescuers decided to name Mufasa, appeared to be weak, sick, and depressed, he also seemed to know on at least some level that these humans from Hope for Paws had arrived to help him.

Slowly and cautiously, Mufasa started to approach the rescuers. It took coaxing but he was happy to get closer once rescuer Lisa Arturo started to throw pieces of a cheeseburger toward him to try to lure him in their direction.

One could imagine that Mufasa probably needed the food, too. Considering the fact that he had been living all by himself in the facility, there was no telling how long it had been since the poor dog had a real meal.

For a while, though, Mufasa had to stop and sit down right where he was. Not only was he probably quite tired, but the rescuers had to give him time to feel safe and comfortable around them. They didn’t want to rush this rescue!

“Let him rest… give him a second,” said one of the rescuers in the video they took. Indeed, one of the worst things that the rescuers could have done would be to scare Mufasa by hurrying into things too quickly.

After spending quite some time waiting for Mufasa to approach them of his own free will, though, it became clear to the rescuers that they would have to take more severe action to save him. It was time to pull out all the stops in this mission.

One of the rescuers decided that it would be best to catch him from above. As just about anyone could have predicted, though, getting caught in their tool came as quite a surprise to poor Mufasa, and he wasn’t too pleased.

The look of relief on Mufasa’s face when he realized he wouldn’t be alone again is priceless. He may be older, but this dog has the spirit of a puppy, and he’s a true fighter!

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