Hercules, the most cutest dog ever, lives in a garbage dump in Turkey. He was notorious for climbing up on people’s cars to greet them when they were tossing trash away. It was as if he was pleading with them to take him home with them.
Regrettably, no one ever took him up on his offer. It could be because he was unclean due to the garbage he was surrounded by.
“He’d jump up on the windows of the car, and he clung to every passenger,” Amanda Cunefare, a volunteer for Rescuers Without Borders (RWB), a canine rescue organization in Turkey, told The Dodo. He was a dog who liked to be around people.”
Sadly, approximately 800 dogs were housed in deplorable conditions at this site. The dogs were continuously searching for food and cold.
Cunefare added, “It’s freezing, there’s no clean water, and food is scarce.” “You have to compete for resources with 800 dogs and bury yourself in garbage mounds to remain warm.” It’s a dreadful, dreadful place to have to live for years.”
Gocke Erdogan, a young Turkish woman, began feeding the stray dogs at the garbage and ensuring that they received the medical attention they required. That’s when RWB teamed up with Erdogan and helped over 47 of the refugees find new homes while also providing food and medical care.
RWB has prioritized rehoming senior dogs and puppies, as they have the most difficult time living.
Hercules stood out among the other dogs. “This dog was desperate to get out,” Cunefare explained. “It was obvious in his eyes.”
The Hercules wasn’t doing so well after Cunefare adopted his closest friend, Dudas: “Gocke had contacted my friend,” Cunefare explained. “She’d said she was reluctant to ask, but she needed to know whether she could send Hercules to me because Dudas had departed and he wasn’t doing well.”
Turns out that Hercules and Dudas were actually best friends at the landfill and Dudas had become a sort of surrogate mother to Hercules.
“My heart broke,” Cunefare said. “I said, ‘That’s horrible. If I’d have known that, they both could have come.’ I can only imagine how awful it was [for him] to watch her leave. So I said, ‘Absolutely send him over.’”
Hercules was moved to the United States with Cunefare’s permission to reside with Cunefare and Dudas on the 2-acre property. The reunion of Hercules and Dudas was pure bliss. “They recognized each other right away,” Cunefare added. “They were running about and playing.”