As a dog lover, the words caught Wilma’s attention. However, she only had $8 at the time, so she didn’t stop to help her colleague.
As she walked, she couldn’t distract her mind from the man’s miserable look and utter despair. Before she was halfway to her car, she decided to turn around and talk to him.
“I looked at him and couldn’t get over it. He looked like a lost little boy there,” Wilma told CBS News.
She asked the man, named Patrick, to tell her what had happened.
I heard that a few days ago the man got in trouble for trespassing, and that’s why he spent two nights in jail. Meanwhile, her dog Franklin was picked up and taken to the local animal shelter, where he was described as a ‘stray’.
It broke Patrick’s heart. When he was released, he immediately called the shelter to ask how he could get his dog back. But what they asked for was more than he had.
The shelter told him he would have to pay $120, plus $10 for each day his dog stayed there. The extortionate fees included a heartworm test, flea prevention, rabies shot and a $35 booking fee.
“I won’t leave this town until I bring my dog,” Wilma said.
Wilma was touched by Patrick’s love for her dog and felt compelled to help him.
“He seemed like a kind, gentle soul, and he just had a tough life,” Wilma said
However, she did not have that amount of money to give him. Wilma knew she couldn’t do it alone, so she called a friend and asked her to help raise money for Patrick.
In addition to bringing the two friends together, Wilma and an animal rescue volunteer named Jill Patrick helped raise money by creating a GoFundMe d dedicated to helping her get back on her feet.
Overwhelmed with gratitude, Patrick said to Wilma:
“You have done more for me than most people have ever done in my life. You don’t know how much I thank you.”
