'It's time for him to have a good life': Vietnamese rescue dog loving life in N.B.

It wasn’t easy, but Captain has finally arrived to his new home.  

The rescue dog from Vietnam is now settling into his new life in Fredericton.

His owner, Sarah MacLeod, is visiting with family in Riverview, N.B., this week and brought him to town hall Tuesday morning for a walk.

She loves seeing him running around freely.

"When I took him for a walk last night and he was running downhill, I could barely catch up with him. That made me happy. I was just laughing the whole time. When he meets other dogs and when I see him socializing and just living a normal life like a dog should, it makes me really happy," said MacLeod.

It was anything but a normal life back in Vietnam for Captain.

The mixed-breed dog, who resembles a miniature husky, was struck by a vehicle five years ago.

He was abandoned by his owner and spent two years in a cage before being rescued by the staff at an animal shelter in Da Nang.

Captain has since had a rear limb amputated, an eye removed and most of his teeth pulled.

None of that kept MacLeod from deciding to foster him and bring him home to Canada.

MacLeod, who worked at the shelter where Captain was living, bonded with him, and in February she decided to start the long process of trying to bring him home in the spring.

The pair had a 40-hour trip from Da Nang to Seoul, South Korea, then to Toronto before arriving in Fredericton on April 12 where MacLeod is living for now.

MacLeod said Captain was a nervous flyer at first, but he soon got used to his crate and was a trooper on the epic journey.

When they arrived at Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Captain was able to stretch his legs -- all three of them -- at a pet relief area outside the airport.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Captain (@captain.danang)

It’s been so far, so good for Captain at his new home in the capital city.

"It's really different here than Vietnam, so he was kind of just confused about everything and on alert I guess," said MacLeod. "He's settling in well, but the weather is a lot colder. He does love going for walks and he loves smelling everything and likes exploring the city. It's a lot easier for him to get around here and it's nice in Fredericton because there's so many trails he can go on."

As for seeing snow for the first time, MacLeod didn't what to expect from her dog.

"I wasn't sure how he was going to react to it, but he was pretty interested in it and then he tried getting his wheelchair over it. So he's totally fine with the snow and he wanted to walk in it," she said.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Captain (@captain.danang)

MacLeod started a fundraising campaign for the trip back in February with the goal of raising $1,500.

Instead, she raised $4,000 and needed every penny to bring Captain to Canada.

"I want to thank everybody," she said about the contributions to the GoFundMe campaign.

MacLeod said it was important to bring him home because he's a great dog and he deserves better.

"As soon as I started fostering him, I knew that he was so happy being out of the shelter and be able to explore and actually have a good life for a dog," said MacLeod. "He's had such a hard life. It's time for him to have a good life now."

As for Sarah, returning to southeast Asia is on hold for now as she plans on returning to her career in kinesiology.

Captain, a rescue dog from Vietnam, arrived to his new home in New Brunswick on April 12. (Courtesy: Instagram/captain.danang)Her grandmother Carole Ritchie had some doubts both of them would make it home.

“I knew that there was no way she was going to leave him there, so I thought if Captain didn’t get here, my granddaughter’s not going to come because she just wasn’t going to give him up,” said Ritchie.

Ritchie, who recently fostered a dog from Texas, knows her granddaughter had to jump through a lot of hoops to get Captain to New Brunswick and she’s very proud of her.

“She fell in love with him and she knew if she didn’t rescue him he would go back to the rescue and probably, in time, he would be just discarded because dogs don’t mean that much over in Vietnam,” said Ritchie. “She nursed him back to health and she just wanted to give him a better life. He wouldn’t have had that in Vietnam. There’s no way he would have had a better life, if any life at all.”

Both share a great deal of affection for Captain, who MacLeod thinks is around eight or nine-years-old.

“I love him. I just think he’s the dearest dog. He’s calm, he’s loving, he’s quiet. He’s just a beautiful, beautiful dog. I can see why she fell in love with him,” said Ritchie.