What started out as a strange mountain sighting ended up in a heartwarming story.

Veronica loves two things.

The great outdoors and dogs.

It was exactly these two things that led her to a serendipitous encounter that will change three lives forever.

She was hiking with her dog through Angeles National Forest when she stumbled upon a strange sight.

On the trail, they saw a hulking black figure.

It was watching them come close.

Sightings such as these can be dangerous, especially out in the wild. Veronica trusted her instincts, however, and followed where the figure climbed to.

Then, she heard a strange sound.

You can hear birds chirp, wolves howl, and other animal calls when you’re in the wilderness. However, Veronica started to hear barking.

That was when she discovered the black figure was actually a Cane Corso, a large breed of dog. And he was not alone. He was with three other dogs.

The circumstances surrounding their backgrounds were unknown but Veronica knew they needed all the help they could get.

The three dogs were emaciated.

She told The Dodo that she could see their ribs jut out from their skin and how their backs traced the outline of their spines. One of the dogs even has an eye injury.

The three dogs were also heavily mistrusting and skittish. Any movement from Veronica causes them to bolt away from the scene.

This made the dogs especially hard to rescue.

Veronica tried calling animal control but she allegedly got a response to “stop calling.” She said that the local animal control couldn’t do anything because the terrain was dangerous.

She didn’t give up, though. For three weeks, she hiked to where the dogs were so she could give them food and water.

Slowly but surely, the dogs began to trust her.

She said she was even almost moved to tears when the dogs started eating straight from the palm of her hand. She just knew she can’t leave the three dogs out there.

Luckily, she also found volunteers to help her out. The first problem to address is how to get all three together.

As she said, after rescuing one, you’d have to be faster and smarter with the next, and you might not catch the third at all.

To address this, they created a large enclosure with a remote trigger.

After rescuing all three, Veronica and the rest of the rescuers endorsed them to a shelter for training.

Then the “real” dogs came out.

When their needs were finally met, the dogs began showing their personalities.

They also started socializing with both humans and dogs so they can be readied for adoption.

The three have shown very significant progress and soon enough, they might actually find their forever homes.

“They are getting rehab with three rescues.” Veronica told The Dodo, “Now they’re getting to learn how to be dogs and how to play. It’s really exciting and it’s really lovely.”

It was a tough start for the dogs, but thankfully, through the combined efforts of a community, they were given a second chance to live and thrive.

See how a hike ended up saving three larger-than-life Cane Corsos in the video below!

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Source: YouTube – The Dodo, Facebook – Cheri Wulff Lucas