Senior dogs losing their homes is something that we witness more often than we would love to. Sadly, many owners decide to surrender their furry companions once they reach certain age.
That is exactly the fate of an 18-year-old and blind Dachshund named Muneca.
Thankfully for her, she was placed at Baldwin Park Animal Care Center in Los Angeles where she got the care she was in need of.
Elaine Seamans, a volunteer at the shelter, paid Muneca a visit after she was brought in, and then the most incredible thing happened. The tiny dog jumped right in her arms and wanted to stay there. She wasn’t willing to let go of another human who crossed her path.
At the time of this touching encounter, photographer John Hwang was around the neighborhood looking to make some shots of homeless people. The staff at the shelter welcomed him in and asked him whether he wanted to take some photos of another kind of homelessness; that of animals dumped at their shelter.
The results were mesmerizing. Many of those photos made at the shelter stole the hearts of the public.
“When I got to the shelter, Elaine was already holding the dog,” Hwang tells The Dodo. “The dog was clinging on to her.”
“Elaine is so amazing with the dogs,” he adds. “She’ll roll on the ground with the shelter dogs. She’ll kiss them. She really has a special chemistry with them. I love capturing that.”
Giving your love and time to those fragile creatures who were abandoned by their owners feels heartwarming. Knowing you are the reason for someone’s smile is priceless. And volunteers at shelters do that every single day. They make a change in animals’ lives and that’s touching beyond words.
The photo of Seamans and Muneca spreads a powerful message!
“Ultimately, the person who sees the photo — I want them to feel something. I want them to feel a connection,” Hwang says. “If I can capture the right sort of connect, then the person who sees the image will feel it too.”
Once the photo went viral, Muneca was taken in by Frosted Faces Foundation and placed at a foster home.
Soon after, a woman named Amy Gann went to visit Muneca. She had seen her photo and knew she had to fill in adoption papers. Luckily, the two bonded instantly and Muneca found her forever home with this lady.
Muneca is a prof that we should never lose our hope that things would turn for the best sooner or later.