The Captain has landed.
He’s an eight-year-old rescue dog from Vietnam. He’s had a rough go and was struck by a vehicle, paralyzing him.
Sarah MacLeod met him at a shelter she was working at in Vietnam. It wouldn’t be long before she’d decide to bring him home to Canada, though.
“They think that he had an owner before so he was abandoned and he was kind of the streets by himself,” she said in an interview on Thursday.
It was during that time that Captain would lose his eye to infection. Eventually, he would also need a leg amputation, MacLeod said, explaining that she kept him at her apartment in Vietnam during that time.
A co-worker asked her early on if she was considering taking him back to Canada, and she started the process — which involved a few regulatory hoops.
“He was so calm. Me and my co-worker were like, ‘Who is this dog, like why is he so calm?’ But we think it’s because he knew he was going to a good place,” she said, describing the initial time before boarding the first plane.
“The weeks leading up to it, I was really nervous, just because it was so unexpected and you can’t really prepare a dog for that,” she said.
MacLeod appealed to the public to help raise funds as well, using every cent to bring Captain home safely — something she said she’s extremely grateful for.
After a 40-hour flight, Captain and MacLeod landed in Fredericton on April 12, and he’s still learning about his new home, which is full of new smells, tastes and adventures.
He has his own custom wheelchair to help him move around.
“He loves going for walks,” MacLeod said. “He loves his chair. Anytime I get out his harness he’s just ready to go. He’s a very calm dog, which is really really nice. So he never barks at other dogs but he loves to meet other dogs.”
Captain can run, too, making MacLeod jog a bit to keep up.
“It’s so nice to see him be able to explore and I love being able to let him do that. He is so curious about the world and it’s pretty great,” she said.
You can follow Captain as he lives his best Canada life at his Instagram captain.danang.
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