Traveling can obviously be a whole lot of fun, but it can be a bit stressful if you’re traveling for business. When this man found himself in Belize for a photography job, he was grateful to get away for a moment to enjoy a picnic. Grab your tissues, because what he saw certainly wasn’t a picnic. In fact, it brought the man to tears.
**In December of 2018, Wesley White was traveling in Belize for business.** With very little free time on his hands, Wesley was looking forward to kayaking to a tiny island in Thatch Caye. When he arrived at the island, he noticed that there was a puppy walking into a deserted fishing shack. “Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his tail wagging,” Wesley said during an interview with The Dodo.
View this post on Instagram On Sunday December 2nd, 2018, while fishing among some mangroves off the the coast of Belize, @wesleywhitepro found a small emaciated dog at an unoccupied fishing shack. Clearly the puppy was near death. Wesley removed the dog from the situation and took him back to Thatch Caye. After booking a boat ride to the main land, winston was taken to Stann Creek Animal Hospital near Dangriga, Belize. Winston was found to be infested with mites, emaciated, and dehydrated, but otherwise his organs were healthy. Through the generosity of others, Wesley was able to pay for full veterinary care and fostering with the Placencia Humane Society. . . . #animalrescue #rescuedog #dogsofinstagram #thedodo #belize #placencia #thehumanesociety @hsiglobal @humanesociety @thedodo A post shared by Winston the Island Dog (@winston_bz) on Jan 11, 2019 at 11:25am PST
“My heart exploded out of my chest. He was just waiting for a human to show up.” Wrapping the little dog in a pair of swim shorts, Wesley put the emaciated dog into the kayak. While on their way back to Thatch Caye, Wesley realized he had less than two days left in Belize, which meant he had almost no time at all to find a home for the puppy.
“Bringing this dog back, I really had no idea if this was going to work out like my heart wanted it to. At the best, I was like, ‘we’ll get him home.’ He’ll end up back in Montana with us.” Fortunately, the employees at the hotel were more than willing to help. Not only did they give the dog a nice meal, but the bartender also located a vet’s office on the mainland.
“Winston was found to be infested with mites, emaciated, and dehydrated, but otherwise his organs were healthy,” wrote Wesley on Instagram. Sadly, Wesley was leaving Belize and only had one more chance to see Winston. “It was like giving up my little puppy all of a sudden,” Wesley said.
Meanwhile, Wesley made a GoFundMe account to help raise money for his new friend. After a month, the vet gave his approval for Winston to travel by plane to Dallas, Texas to reunite with Wesley. They would continue traveling by car from Dallas to Montana.
“Is he even going to remember me? Well, it takes him just a few moments of sniffing my feet and sniffing my pants, and I think that whatever had implanted on his brain as far as memory just came to.”
“Mr Winston weighs 36 pounds now! 24 pounds heavier than when I found him in December. Having 3 dogs is a little wild, but I’m loving it!” wrote Wesley in a post on Facebook.
