Mendo the German shepherd went from fleeing wildfires to settling into a forever home, thanks to a Utah firefighter who spotted his glowing eyes through the smoke.
Firefighter Patrick Cullen of the Draper City Fire Department and his team were fighting the Mendocino wildfires in California when he spotted something in the woods.
“He wasn’t sure what it was, a mountain lion perhaps?” the Draper City Fire Department wrote on Facebook. “And out came a beautiful German shepherd.”
They said the pup was extremely dehydrated, but they gave him water and shelter inside the fire truck.
After fighting the fire, the team brought the pup to a shelter, where he was cared, and they searched for his owners.
The team returned to their home, but Cullen couldn’t stop thinking of the pup. He called the shelter, and rescuers told him the dog would soon be up for adoption.
Determined to bring him home, Cullen reached out to volunteers in Mendocino County, who drove Cullen to Reno, Nevada, where he met them to bring Cullen home.
“The dog was happy to see Patrick — he ran around in happy circles,” they said.
Cullen later named the "beautiful, friendly and affectionate" dog Mendo, after the wildfires he was rescued from.
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