Joe Kahlo
Meet Calvin Tucker, a good Samaritan who always seems to have stray animals finding him one way or another.
For example, his very first rescue was when a gray kitten just showed up outside his work looking for help. Now, Calvin didn’t even like cats at the time, but something about this one moved him.
“The way he looked at me, it touched my heart. So I went back inside and got some crackers and fed them to him,” Tucker told The Dodo. “The next day, when I got there, he was waiting for me at 7 a.m.”
So he adopted the cat who he called Henry, and since then, he has rescued more than 123 animals, mostly cats and helps in feeding feral cat colonies every single day of the week.
A real hero already! One day, his senses were tingling and he just got a feeling that someone was in need of his help.
“It was Friday evening, and I was heading home and for whatever reason, something just spoke to me and told me to get off the expressway about six exits before my home,” Calvin said. “When I got off the freeway and turned on the main highway, I saw Wrinkles immediately. He was in the middle of the road, he was scared, cars were coming, honking at him.”
He got a can of food to try and lure the frightened pup to safety. He explained, “I sat there with him for about 15 to 20 minutes. He was in bad condition. About 98 percent of his hair was gone and the only thing you saw were wrinkles.”
He took wrinkles the pup straight to a foster home where they bathed him and gave him a place to rest. The very next morning, Calvin came back and took the stray to the vet.
Wrinkles was only young but was still suffering from a few illnesses. One thing he didn’t lack was love.
“He laid on the table and we just looked into each other’s eyes and the only thing I saw was that he was happy to be off the streets,” Calvin said. “You could just see the gratitude in his eyes the way he looked at me — he was just at total peace.”
After a weekend of treatment at the veterinary hospital, Wrinkles was taken to a foster home where he could start his long road to recovery.
“The foster said that he was the sweetest dog that they had ever fostered,” Tucker said. “He got along excellent from day one with her other fosters, he was running around and playing with them and enjoying himself.”
It did take Wrinkles six months to fully grow his fur back, but when he finally did, it was a real stunning glossy black coat.
Calvin even contacted the Two By Two Animal Rescue who are a local rescue centre, and conviced them to help Wrinkles with finding a forever home.
It wasn’t long before he made a connection and finally found the family he deserved.
“They did a home visit and the people came out and met him and when they met him it was just love at first sight, both ways,” Tucker said.
Thank you Calvin Tucker, you are a true hero!
