Cara, a six-year-old girl from Londonderry, Northern Ireland, was playing near her home in 2014 when she suddenly heard a strange noise.
Curious, she set out to find where it was coming from.
A true hero
Cara quickly realised the sound was coming from a woodpile. Using her own strength, she moved the wood and cleared away stones to uncover what lay beneath. But what she saw next left her speechless: beneath the pile, in a shallow pit, was a dog desperately trying to escape.
Cara ran home to get her father, who immediately recognised that this was no accident. The dog hadn’t fallen into the pit by chance, she had been abandoned and left to fend for herself. Cara’s father pulled the poor animal from the hole and discovered that she was a severely undernourished and blind female dog.
A new beginning for Bella
The family brought the dog home to recover, and Cara named her Bella. The next day, they contacted the Rainbow Rehoming Centre to help find her a new home.
Volunteers from the organisation collected Bella and took her to a vet for a health check. According to the vet, Bella had likely been used for breeding and was abandoned when she could no longer produce puppies. Tragically, it appeared she had spent most of her life chained up.
Not long after, a loving new family was found for Bella, one where she could finally enjoy a life of freedom and care.
