The polar vortex in January 2019 made life uncomfortable for humans and animals alike. And the stories that came out of it were equal parts devastating and uplifting.

Shortly after the weather event took place, photos emerged of a goose trying to save a puppy that was freezing on the side of the road.

A Facebook post from January 30th showed two photos of the moment and garnered over 175k reactions and nearly a quarter of a million shares.

The photos are said to be from Montana and in them, you can see a goose with her wings wrapped around a puppy.

Some have said that the goose appears to be frozen to the pole behind it because temperatures were so low.

While the photo captured hearts and brought out the inevitable comments about how humans have a lot to learn about compassion from animals (some people even managed to toss in some politics, because why not?), no one can confirm that the photos are captioned correctly.

The photos themselves seem to be real. But after an investigation by Snopes (which dedicates itself to confirming or debunking Internet stories and conspiracy theories), the circumstances are still unclear. But the polar vortex story is false.

“However, they weren’t taken recently, we’ve found no evidence that either animal was “stuck to a pole,” and we’re skeptical that these photographs were snapped in Montana (or anywhere in the United States),” Snopes reported.

How do they know?

The photos seem to have originated in China, or at the very least they were being posted there on the Chinese social media site Weibo since 2017.

The very first appearance of the photo appears to be from March 2017 on a blog post on the Chinese news platform NetEase, which allows anyone to post anything (a lot like Reddit) with no fact-checking involved.

A Google translation of the original story reads:

“The puppy was shivering coldly on the side of the road. Even the passing duck couldn’t see it. But one duck ran straight at the puppy and hugged it to keep it warm.

When the dog was hugged by the duck, it did not struggle and was safely taken in her arms. It can be seen that the ducks have more love, and that mother love is great.

In the care of the mother duck, the puppy no longer has to be afraid of being cold, and only this kind of particularly caring duck mother will do this. The average animal will not be like this for children who are not their own.”

Ok, so that’s not quite a news story and it gives no indication whether or not it was an eyewitness account.

It’s a good lesson in not taking everything you read on the Internet at face value. In this case, the photos seem real, which means there was a compassionate duck or goose somewhere taking care of a puppy, but that’s all we can say.

That didn’t stop people from choosing their own ending:

Of course, there are lots of examples of interspecies friendship and animals caring for babies that aren’t their own.

Just because this likely didn’t happen in the U.S. doesn’t mean it’s not a sweet photo.

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Source: Snopes, Suzanne PadaPetra via Facebook