The internet is full of trolls but sometimes it has kind-hearted people as well.
That was what friends Michelle Korte and Jared Downing learned when they found an adoptive parent on Reddit on Sunday for a puppy which they “borrowed” from a homeless Filipino woman.
Faith in humanity restored, yo.
The Yangon-based Americans posted a call for adoptive parents on the subreddit r/Philippines. Their post was upvoted 609 times.
Korte and Downing were in Manila from Jan. 4 to 5 when they discovered the puppy being sold by a woman for PHP500 (US$9.54). They met her on a street in Makati.
The adorable pup, who the friends said was very well-behaved, was named Hamza.
Korte told Coconuts Manila in a Skype call: “We were walking and planning to take the ferry down to Manila Bay. While we were on the way, we saw this woman who was holding this adorable puppy and I couldn’t stop myself and I asked her if I could pet it. And she tried to sell it to us.”
After telling the woman that they couldn’t bring the puppy abroad with them, they paid her PHP500 instead to “rent” the pet.
Downing said: “We rented the puppy for a day and carried it around [with us].”
The pair quickly grew attached with the cute pup after spending 10 hours traveling around the metro with him. They realized that they couldn’t return him to the woman and thought that he needed a proper home.
Downing then thought of looking for a pet parent on r/Philippines.
He said: “We’ve kind of gotten attached [to him] and [we] really didn’t want him to become a street dog. I thought I’ll post on Reddit and see what happens. I didn’t really have a lot of hope that it would work.”
But it did. One redditor with the name u/frostedmelodies06 said she was ready to adopt the dog. When the friends met her at a restaurant in Makati in the evening — 10 hours after they took Hamza from the homeless woman — she seemed like the perfect fit.
Said Korte: “When she came to meet us, we chatted if she had pets before. And she seemed like she was a really, really good [ dog owner] and we were happy to give it to her.”
The two were floored by the overwhelming amount of feedback they received from redditors — not entirely surprising given that a lot of Pinoys love animals.
Said Korte: “[They were saying] ‘I’m going to follow this thread to make sure that this puppy gets a home, let me know what happens.’ And when we posted the update [to say that he was adopted], I was surprised that it got even more likes [than our first post.]”
Korte and Downing’s update post telling the community that Hamza found a fur-ever home was upvoted 875 times. Not bad at all.
The comments that the two received online were mostly positive. One wished them (including the adoptive mother) “God bless.”
Another wished a good life for the pup.
One called the adoption “heart-warming.”
Indeed, it is. That’s one lucky pup.
Coconuts got in touch with Hamza’s adoptive mother but sadly, she hasn’t replied as of writing.
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