Photo: Henry Friedman
Henry Friedman is always helping a hound in need, even on vacation.
The animal rescue advocate is the father of Finn, a stray dog rescued from the streets of Puerto Rico thatended up as Friedman’s forever pet when the canine’s original adoption plans fell through. Friedman, who was driving Finn to his new family and documenting the dog’s “freedom ride” forThe Dogistwhen the adopters changed their minds, adopted Finn in 2018, and the two have been traveling the country in Friedman’s van ever since.
While much of their time on the road is dedicated to helping animals, Finn and Friedman still take vacations. But even on their personal road trips, animals in need seem to find the pair. During a recent vacation, Friedman drove to a remote beach in Mexico’s Baja Peninsula to scope out potential camping spots. Instead, he found three adults dog and three young puppies dirty, alone and desperate for attention.
Henry Friedman
“I truly believe they were asking for help. They followed us around the campsite. They slept in front of our vans each night and greeted us every morning when we opened our doors. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if we didn’t try,” Friedman says.
Thanks to his connections in the rescue community, Friedman was able to get in touch with the rescuesThe Animal PadandLos Adoptablesand arrange for the dogs to be taken into their care.
Unfortunately, when the rescues arrived, after Friedman had left the beach, they could only collect two of the puppies. Unable to get the dogs who shadowed him on vacation out of his head, Friedman returned to the beach and managed to gather the four remaining canines and get them into his van.
Friedman’s rescue was even more timely than he initially expected because less than 24 hours after scooping up the four canines and getting them to The Animal Pad in San Diego, two of the dogs gave birth.
“It’s like they were just waiting until they felt safe and secure. They gave birth to a total of 16 puppies between the two of them,” Friedman says of the amazing moment.
“The timing of it all confirmed a lot for me. It confirmed that all of those choices we made to help these dogs was worth it,” he added. “It confirmed to me that these dogs not only needed our help but were asking for our help. We see a lot of ugly/upsetting things in the animal welfare world. So it’s incredibly important to hold on to stories and endings like these as a reminder of why we do this work in the first place and why it’s always worth trying. This was certainly one of those stories.”
“You don’t need money or a social media platform to help an animal. You just need some compassion and the will to try. Do you want to know how to climb a mountain? One step at a time,” Friedman says of what he hopes people take away from this sweet story. “The same is true for helping animals. It’s a huge problem, but it still happens one dog at a time. Or one cat at a time. And if you can help just ONE animal, I promise you it’s always worth it.”
source: people.com
