Mona Ahmed stopped in front of a kennel in the shelter where there were two dogs: Felix, a small black dog, mixed Chihuahua , and Oscar, a large dog, golden labrador mixture that was missing a leg, both of 2 year old. Felix was curled up on Oscar, resting his head against his fur.
Every week, Mona enters this refuge in Fresno, which has a high rate of euthanasia, to photograph dogs and post their photos on Facebook, hoping to help them to be adopted. But when she tried to photograph Felix and Oscar separately, it was impossible.
Mona works as a volunteer photographer at a city shelter in Fresno, California. She told The Dodo:
“My heart just melted to see the love they have for each other, right away I took my phone out and took a picture.”
Christi Camblor, cofounder of Compassion Without Borders (CWOB), an organization that rescues dogs in the U.S. and Mexico, said:
“She had a really hard time separating them, if she pulled one out, the other would start whining.”
Seeing how close Felix and Oscar were, Mona was horrified to learn that they were scheduled for euthanasia that same day at 5 o’clock. So she begged the shelter staff to give him only one more day.
Little dog abandoned in a shelter will not leave the side of his best friend
Refuge workers agreed to give the dogs another day, but no more than that: Felix and Oscar had contracted Kennel cough, a contagious respiratory disease, and the staff did not want the disease to spread to other dogs in the shelter.
This was just the time for Mona to contact the CWOB volunteers , who were in Fresno picking up other rescued dogs.
The picture of this pair of friends was so sweet that Christi asked the volunteers to come back and evaluate them to make sure they were friendly.
Felix and Oscar turned out to be very sweet, so the CWOBvolunteers took them out of the shelter and took them to Muttopia, the CWOB rescue facility in Santa Rosa, California.
Christi said:
“They’re actually pretty sick, their kennel cough is pretty bad. It’s just nonstop coughing.”
They may not feel good, but Felix and Oscar smiled when they arrived at Muttopia.
Christi said:
“They hopped out of the car and were instantly wagging their tails, they were both so friendly and sweet.”
They continue to be inseparable.
Christi said:
“If they’re sleeping, they’re sleeping together — exactly how that photo captured it—,when we let them loose, they’re running around together. They are very bonded. They also seem to get very anxious if they need to be separated.”
Felix and Oscar will stay at Muttopia for a few more weeks as they recover from the kennel cough and they are castrated. Christi also wants to get a prosthesis for the missing leg of Oscar. When they are ready to be relocated, she has two wishes: to go to a home in Northern California (which facilitates the adoption process), and to put them together in the same house.
If you live in Northern California and you think you have the perfect home for Oscar and Felix, contact CWOB.
