Regular readers of OGN will know we love these kinds of stories. This one is from Nova Scotia.
When Matthew Van De Riet unexpectedly found himself at the scene of a car crash on a lonely patch of highway, without hesitation, he stepped in to help.
The car was flipped over on its roof and the driver's two dogs, both very distressed (but not injured), were standing beside it. Matthew secured the two hounds - Kipper, a Basset Hound, and Merlin, a shepherd.
Matthew then turned his attentions to the human passengers in the badly damaged vehicle. Though the car was flipped on its roof, both the driver and his girlfriend survived the accident. As he tended to them, another passerby called for an ambulance. The medical personnel who arrived soon after determined the female passenger’s injuries, though not life-threatening, warranted her being airlifted to a nearby hospital for care, reports GNN.
Rather than leaving the driver and the dogs stranded, Matthew transferred the couple’s belongings and their dogs into his truck and drove the young man to the Halifax hospital where his girlfriend was being treated. But the day’s random acts of kindness were far from finished.
With their owners new to the area and having no family close by, Matthew was left with the logistical problem of what to do with Kipper and Merlin. Again, without hesitation, he offered to keep the dogs until the couple was able to pick them up, and the two dogs quickly became friends with his miniature pinschers.
“I figured the least I could do was take those dogs home with me,” told CBC News. “I knew the pups were shaken up - and I know if somebody was in an accident and their loved one is hurt, the last thing they need to worry about is their dogs.”