Valia Orfanidou is a volunteer at several animal rescue organizations in Greece. It’s a country where there isn’t nearly enough recognition of how important animal welfare is: there are literally millions of stray dogs.
Orfanidou was vacationing at a small seaside village one summer. That sounds very pleasant but for someone like her, it can be a very difficult experience. There are stray dogs all over the place in rural Greece and as she says, “You either have to turn a blind eye or come back home with a dozen rescue dogs.” Late in the afternoon each day, Orfanidou and her own dogs would go for a walk along the beach. She noticed that by sunset, the people were gone and the beach, all 16 miles of it, literally went to the dogs, taken over by the local strays.
During one of those late-afternoon walks, Orfanidou noticed there was one dog that seemed to be taking a liking to her. This made her panic. “When you are an animal lover living in Greece, you simply get used to lonely stray dogs wandering around everywhere, and choose to rescue the ones that can’t make it on the streets: the sick, emaciated or hurt ones, the newborns, and the pregnant females.” The dog that was trying to befriend her didn’t fit into any of those categories. And yet the dog clearly wasn’t cut out for life as a stray: she was too trusting and too eager for attention. So Orfanidou went ahead and rescued the dog, who she named Blue.
The really good news is that Blue didn’t have to wait very long to find her forever home. After just a couple of months, a family in Holland adopted her. Blue is so gentle and friendly that she’s become a therapy dog.
Have a look at the video we’ve posted below if you’d like to see the whole story of this amazing rescue dog. We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments at Facebook. Don’t forget to like and share!
