Last year, animal rescuer Lidia Elizabeth Reyes Cespedes took in an elderly stray dog from the streets near her home in Chile. She named him Viejito — “Little Old Man” — and promised to care for him to the end.
“I told him I’m going to give him a decent life for the time he has left,” Cespedes told The Dodo. “I expected him to live 6 months. He lived a year.”
Cespedes, who at any given time cares for dozens of dogs, typically tries to find new homes for the pups she rescues. But Viejito never got the chance to experience the warmth of a family to call his very own. But Cespedes loved him all the same.
So, when it came time to bury Viejito, Cespedes and a companion ventured into the countryside, finding a quiet spot to lay his body to rest.
But then a sound struck their ears.
“I found a tree, beneath which we would bury Viejito,” Cespedes said. “Then suddenly, we heard a puppy whimpering. We turned and saw this dog. We were surprised. We looked, and there was no one else around.”
The puppy ran up to the Cespedes, seeming to regard her as an old friend.
Cespedes was struck by the significance of that moment — being greeted by a young dog at the very moment she’d come to bid a last farewell to Viejito. But the moment didn’t end there.
As Cespedes dug a hole for Viejito’s body, the puppy lingered close by.
“She laid down, calmly observing what we were doing.”
When the task was complete, the mystery puppy rested atop the mound where Viejito had been laid to rest.
Cespedes suspects that the puppy may have recently been abandoned in the area. But online, where Cespedes shared word of her encounter, many of her friends saw it something bordering on otherworldly.
“Viejito sent you another angel,” one wrote.
As Cespedes and her companion prepared to leave, the puppy perked back up.
Nube, as she’s now known, would be coming home with them.
Nube has joined Cespedes’ pack of rescue dogs at home, where she’s been protected ever since.
“She’s well taken care of with us,” Cespedes said.
Cespedes hopes to find a forever home for Nube — something that Viejito, before her, had never gotten the chance to know.
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