Puppy found caked in tar, rescued and cleaned up

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Thursday, June 25, 2015
A puppy in India was found covered in tar in the road. Her incredible clean-up and recovery were documented in a heartwarming video.
creativeContent-Animal Aid Unlimited, India/YouTube

A 3-month-old puppy can once again play and snuggle after getting covered in so much tar she was unable to move.

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The little dog was playing by a road undergoing repairs when all four of her legs got stuck in the tar. She was taken to Animal Aid Unlimited, an organization devoted to rescuing street animals in Udaipur, a city in northwest India. They documented her incredible clean-up and recovery, posting a video on YouTube Sunday.

Claire Abrams, co-founder of Animal Aid Unlimited, told ABC that the puppy would have not been very well off if this had happened in a city without a rescue organization.

"In India animals live on the streets and generally live good lives unless they come into trouble as this little girl did," Abrams said. "Most cities in India tragically do not have any rescue service for injured or ill street animals, and so millions of animals in India die from very treatable conditions. If this puppy had been in virtually any other city in India, her fate would have been painful to imagine."

The organization said on Facebook that, when the little boy who found her called them, they knew they had to help her right away.

"The sweetest little angel you've ever seen, all four legs stuck together in tar, unable to move and so scared," they wrote. "It was 9 o'clock at night but we couldn't wait a moment to begin."

They set to work giving the puppy an oil and bath treatment, washing her a total of four times to get all the tar off.

After they cleaned her off, the little boy who first rescued her got to take her home, Abrams said. The puppy's mom also went home with the boy.

"The young boy who rescued her from the tar and called us for help lives in that same neighborhood and cares for her now by feeding her and her mom and being ready to call us for help if she or her mom ever gets injured or sick," she said.

As the end of the video shows, the treatment was successful, and the puppy is already back to playing.

"Sometimes people say that helping animals is thankless work because animals can't talk," the organization wrote on Facebook, "but if there was ever an animal to show otherwise it's this little sweetheart."

Images used with permission of Animal Aid Unlimited.