On a wintry day this last December, a Canada-based man came across something that moved him deeply. Bryan Thompson, a Nova Scotia resident, was out for a walk in his local park. With loads of snow blanketing the ground, the scene looked like a winter wonderland.

Popping out against the background in the distance, though, he saw a man pulling a wagon behind him and in it was his most valued treasure; a white dog lovingly wrapped in cozy blankets.

Touched by the heartwarming scene of the man pulling the dog in his wagon, Thompson couldn’t help but wonder about the story behind it.

He asked the man why he was toting the dog through the snow. As it turned out, the little sweetie suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS. Essentially, it is a disease caused by a mutation of a specific gene that later leads to paralysis and, eventually, death.

Robert H. Brown Jr., a neurologist trialing a gene-silencing therapy on dogs to treat canines with ALS at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, explains the pathology of the disease:

“In dogs, it turns out there’s a mutation in the SOD1 gene, which normally makes an antioxidant protein that helps protect nerve cells from a variety of cellular stresses and injuries. When this gene gets mutated, it becomes toxic to nerves, killing off the motor neurons in dogs the same way that this genetic mutation does in some people with ALS,” he tells Tuft’s.

Learning about the dog’s condition, it suddenly made perfect sense to Thompson why the man was pulling his furbaby through the snow in a wagon. His love for her was pure and true.

The heartwrenching revelation and the man’s tenderness toward his dog moved Thompson so deeply that he had to snap a few pictures and share them to social media.

In his post, he told the story of how he stumbled across the man pulling his dog on the cozy wagon through the snow.

“I don’t know this man, and I hope he won’t mind this post. This guy with an awesome heart was walking his dog through Shubie Park in Dartmouth, as you can see, in a wagon.

He told me she has ALS, she was all bundled up and was happy for extra love,” he wrote.

Thompson went on to say how he commended the man for bestowing such kindness on the dog, but the man’s response only made the encounter that much sweeter.

“I told him he was a great person for doing that, because I know there are many who wouldn’t. He just said that she would do the same for him and kept trucking. It’s hard to type this without tearing up,” Thompson’s post continues.

So touched by the angel this man seems to be, Thompson ended his post with a call to action, hoping to inspire more such tender mercies from his followers:

“I hope you can share this, especially everyone who shares the lost animal posts, this guy deserves a huge dog kiss for his love of his dog,” Thompson ended his post.

His wishes were immediately granted.

Since posting about the encounter with the man that left such an impression on him a little more than a month ago, Thompson’s post has been shared over 50,000 times and received nearly just as many interactions. Not only has this chance-encounter spread awareness about ALS in dogs and in general, but it has also shown the world just how much a simple act of kindness can mean to someone suffering from such a terrible disease.

We’re with Thompson on this one. This guy indeed deserves some big ol’ doggy kisses for his devotion, and we’re sure he gets them all the time.

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Source: The Dodo/Bryan Thompson