Content note: this story includes images of a severely underweight dog.
She was skin and bones, alone on an island beach in the Amazon. The boat she had briefly found safety on had already put her back ashore and was sailing away. Then one man looked back and saw her sitting on the sand, watching.
A holiday that changed everything
David Foster, from Northern Ireland, was on a bucket-list holiday in Brazil, travelling with strangers on a boat trip along the Amazon.
Not long before, he had set up a small charity called Play for Strays to bring toys and enrichment to animal rescue centres around the world. On this trip he had already dropped off toys at a rescue centre in São Paulo.
He had no plans to bring a dog home. Nine years earlier he had lost his beloved dog Freeda, and he had been so heartbroken that he vowed never to have another dog.
Then, on an island in the Amazon, he met Negrita.
“Just a bag of bones”
“From the moment I saw Negrita I knew I needed to help her,” David said. “She was just a bag of bones and she was alone, starving and covered in wounds and fleas.”
He thinks she may have been a guard dog on an Amazon fishing boat who either fell off or was kicked off. She had had puppies, and she was about four years old.
David’s instinct was simple: feed her and get her onto the boat. But apart from the cooks, nobody else on board felt the same way. “I knew if we left without her, we’d have condemned her to a death sentence,” he said. “She was so skinny and weak.”
After a battle with the staff and other passengers, he was allowed to bring her on board.
Left on the beach
Then, one morning, David heard the boat’s engine start. He got up early to take photos and saw Negrita sitting on the beach, watching the boat sail away. She had been taken off at dawn.
“I couldn’t believe it. There was just no compassion for her,” he said.
After what he called “a lot of pretty bad-tempered talk”, David got the boat turned around and brought Negrita back on board. From then on she slept in his cabin, so he knew she would be safe.
A test that could have ended it all
When the boat trip ended, the rest of the group went off on a jungle trek. David went to find help for Negrita.
She was tested for leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease. David was told that if she had it, she would be put to sleep straight away. He waited 24 difficult hours. The test came back clear.
Negrita was treated for fleas, ticks and worms and given a rabies vaccination. “By this stage I knew she was coming home with me,” David said. “I just needed to figure out how.”
Six months apart
Negrita needed six months of quarantine before she could fly to the UK. David contacted the São Paulo charity where he had dropped off toys, and they agreed to look after her.
So David flew home alone. For six months, the charity sent him videos and photos of the dog he had already decided was his.
The longest journey
When the time came, Negrita flew in a crate from São Paulo to Frankfurt, then on to Dublin. A forklift lifted her crate off the plane and set it down in the snow.
There was no joyful moment of recognition. “She hadn’t a clue who I was,” David said. She was petrified and frantic, in a strange country full of strange smells and sounds. He put her crate in the car and drove from Dublin to Antrim.
At home, he carried the crate into the back garden, opened the door and got out of her way. She ran out, had the biggest pee, “and then we started again.”
Life in Antrim
Four years later, Negrita, now about eight, lives with David in Co Antrim. Belfast Live described her as a “sofa surfer”.
David says she is goofy, playful and affectionate with him, and she likes and trusts his dad, Hillard. Her past has left her with some quirks. She is wary of strangers and barriers, and she wears a muzzle in public so everyone stays safe.
“She’s our girl and she’ll have everything she needs for the rest of her life,” David said.
In 2021, her story was featured in the ITV documentary Unbelievable Moments Caught on Camera.
“She allowed me to be her person”
“Her life was precious and she came for help,” David said. “I’m just grateful I was there at that time, in that place, at that moment. I’m just grateful she allowed me to be her person.” ❤️
Story retold from public reporting. Credit: Belfast Live (https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/starving-dog-rescued-amazon-watch-21648809); photos by David Foster. Photos are reference only; usage rights are pending and images will appear only once permission is granted.
Images in this article are illustrative recreations made for this story, not photographs of the dog.
