Balto is living proof that a stray dog can be more grateful and can offer more love than a breed dog. After four years of calling the streets home, he chose his family himself with a gesture that immediately touched his owner.
Which was Balto’s gesture?
Larion Teodora Simona wanted to volunteer at the dog shelter, not adopt one of the dogs. But from day one, her heart was with Balto. ”On the first day I let the dogs sniff me, so that we’d get to know each other. I held my hand out to the pens. The dogs all licked my hands and jumped on the fence; only Balto stood quietly in a corner and stared at me. When the others calmed down, he eventually came to me. He put his paw on my hand and started patting me. From that moment I knew that he’d picked me,” confesses Simona.
When she got home, Simona talked to her husband about the possibility of adopting a large dog. They already had one dog, Luxi, at home with them in their apartment. ”It took three weeks to get him home. I dreamed about him at night. I missed him. I called during the week to ask about him and I could hardly wait until the weekend to go to see him,” she says.
”We’re the lucky ones, not him”
Although he’d never lived with a family, Balto got used to his new life very quickly. After only three days, he learned to walk on a leash better than a trained dog. He never makes a mess in the house, and he gets along very well with Luxi. ”Everyone admires him. He paces us when we walk, and if we stop, he stops. He acts as if he was trained, so I’m convinced that he’s a dog of great intelligence. We’re the luckiest people to have him. We’re the lucky ones since he found us as his family, not him,” says Simona.
He lived near a hospital
After Balto was adopted, we found out more about his early life. A nurse at a hospital in Brasov came to our shelter with a tight throat. ”I just came to see him. Is he here with you? I don’t know what can I do for him, but I want to see him alive and well,” said the woman, who brought some pictures with her to show us the dog she was talking about. That’s how we and his new family learned about the conditions under which grew Balto up. Four years ago, a female dog living near the hospital gave birth to four puppies. The nurse felt sorry for the dog and her puppies and gave them food each day. By the end of summer, Balto walked away from the hospital and was picked up on the streets. It was his lucky day. Eventually he found the family who loves him so much and to whom he gives all his love.
