Puppy-love moment a glad-to-be-alive dog hugs a vet’s leg after being rescued from killer floods in Brazil.
The volunteer was helping to save drowning animals in the storm-battered state of Rio Grande do Sul when the just rescued pup could not bear to let her go.
As Liandra Dall’Orsoletta tended to other animals it wrapped its front legs around her calf and just clung on whimpering before the footage, recorded in Canoas, ends.
More than 10,000 animals have been saved since floods began sweeping through the region at the end of last month (April).
Liandra, coordinator of the Small Animal Care Center (NAPA) in Chapeco, said later: “When I went to pull my leg, I felt that something was holding me back. I looked and I saw him. He was crying.”
The footage came amid other heartbreaking images showing how some dogs were too terrified to stop swimming even when they were on dry land.
Two clips showed how they frantically doggy paddled after hours of struggling to stay afloat.
The first video, filmed in Canoas, shows one rescued dog on 13th May, still trying to swim despite being wrapped in a blanket and held by a rescuer.
A second video shows another dog doing exactly the same thing as the rescuer holding it strokes its coat reassuringly.
Behavioural vet and animal stress expert Joice Peruzzi told local media: “The behaviour of swimming in dogs is normally related to contact with water.
“So, often, when they were swimming and remain wet for longer, they can still continue with this reflex.
“Or because they have done that repetitive behaviour for a long time, they keep doing it.”
Peruzzi added: “Sometimes the animal is in shock about what happened, an emotional shock.
“Not that it thinks it is still there in the water, but this movement can continue involuntarily.”
Two new flood deaths were confirmed dead on 13th May with the number of victims rising to 147.
Civil Defence officials said there are still 127 people missing and 806 injured, with over half a million displaced.
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Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
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