The other day, I grabbed lunch from one of my favorite elegant restaurants, but as usual I ordered way too much. After my waitress and her incredibly short orange shorts returned with my boxed up chicken wings, I set out to return from whence I came. But then I saw an elderly gentleman hobo begging for change to purchase food and/or meth, and I decided that I didn’t need those two wings as much as he did, so I gave my to-go box to that bum. Needless to say, I felt great about it and now I patiently await my Nobel Prize.
It turns out, though, that I have some competition in the selfless acts of kindness category, and it’s a junkyard dog named Lilica from São Carlos, Brazil. Every night, Lilica walks two miles to pick up some food scraps for herself and her animal family, which includes a cat, chickens and mule. Yes, I believe that is the greatest sentence that I have ever written.
For those of you not fluent in Portuguese, here is Lilica’s story in English:
Lilica lives in a junkyard in São Carlos, Brazil. She lives on the site with another dog, a cat, chickens and a mule, along with Neile Vania Antonio, who found Lilica abandoned as a puppy and took her in.
Every night the dog makes her way to the home of Professor Lucia Helena de Souza. She travels miles along a busy highway road to meet with Lucia. Lucia, who takes care of 13 stray dogs and 30 cats, has developed a special routine with the dog. Lucia prepares food and puts it in a bag for Lilica and then meets her every night at 9:30 pm. Lilica eats some of the meal and then carries the bag back to the junkyard to feed the other animals.
Lucia said, “I realized that she ate and then stared at what was in the bag.” A neighbor pointed out Lucia that maybe Lilica wanted to take the rest of the food with her. “Then we tied it up and took the bag and gave it to Lilica. From that day on we do it,” said Lucia.
Lilica gently picks up the bag and travels back home to deliver the much appreciated dinner. Neile said that Lilica has been making her nightly meal delivery for three years. She said that Lilica is a special dog. “People don’t do that. Some people hide and do not want to share what they have with others. She did not, Lilica is an exceptional animal.” (Via Dog Heirs)
Hold on, let me reach into my bag of GIFs that is totally not the front of my sweatpants and find something that perfectly captures how happy this story makes me…