Owner Moves Out and Ties Dog Under a Tree, Leaving It to Starve – Skin and Bones, It's Heartbreaking!

In late summer of 2022, the air in Miami carried the salty, briny sea breeze.

When 28-year-old mechanic Hugo Leiza finished his night shift and was heading home, he suddenly heard a faint whimpering behind the iron fence.

The strong man from Puerto Rico tiptoed and peered through the rusted gaps of his neighbor's fence, and what he saw made his heart stop—under a vine-covered palm tree, the ribs of a large white dog were rising and falling with each breath, its dirty, matted fur stretched over its fragile body, resembling a broken tent in the wilderness.

"This isn't a dog! It's just a skeleton wrapped in a blanket!" Hugo immediately woke up his roommate, Alex Carvalho.

The two men dug out the last of their sausages and mineral water, using discarded tires in the yard to climb over the two-meter-high fence.

As they approached quietly, the iron chain tied to the tree trunk scraped sharply, and the curled-up animal suddenly perked up its ears, its murky eyes flashing with suspicion.

"It's okay, little guy," Hugo knelt on the hot cement, his trembling fingers tearing open the sausage packaging.

The weak dog suddenly burst with surprising strength, its clawed paws scraping through the food scraps, even swallowing the plastic wrapping whole.

It was then they noticed the thick green moss in the dog's bowl, and the collar tied to the iron chain had deeply embedded into its skin, with dark brown scabs forming over the rotting wounds.

As Carvalho recorded the heartbreaking scene on his phone, Hugo suddenly clenched his fists. "We can't just leave it here." This man, who grew up in a shelter, still remembered the scene when he was twelve, watching his beloved shepherd dog being thrown out of the house by his drunken father.

The two of them went to the front door and rang the bell, only to be stunned by the elderly man who answered.

It turned out that this Saint Bernard named Ganesh had been abandoned by the homeowner's nephew when he moved to New York three months ago, deemed a "burden."

"The scoundrel said the dog food was too expensive, and the vaccine bills were like an avalanche," the elderly man said, shrugging helplessly. "If you want it, just take it; the people from the city hall are coming to take it tomorrow anyway."

As Hugo trembled while untying the rusted chain, the 85-pound giant dog, now free, suddenly pushed its furry head into his arms, its damp nose gently rubbing against his wrist—this movement, which should have been full of wariness, caused Carvalho's camera to blur instantly.

They piled the backseat with dog food and ointments they had rushed to buy from Walmart, but Ganesh stubbornly placed his chin between them, as though afraid of being abandoned once more.

Now living in the "five-star doghouse" Hugo had converted from his garage, Ganesh's weight had returned to a healthy 120 pounds.

During an examination, the vet discovered that this big guy with amber eyes, though nearly seven years old, was still obsessed with chasing the waves like a puppy.

Whenever dusk fell, it would tug its new owners to the beach, running through the waves under the purple-pink sunset, its fluffy tail drawing a happy arc behind it.

"It taught us that true wealth isn't the numbers on a bank card," Hugo said, stroking Ganesh's sleek, shiny fur with a smile.

At that moment, the Saint Bernard was focused on chewing a chew stick, and sunlight streamed through the gaps in the palm leaves, casting dancing patches of light on it—those ribs, once sharp like a broken tent, were now filled with love and security, transformed into warm hills.