In the mud-caked and debris-covered disaster area of Nepal, amidst the tense rescue operations, several loyal dogs refusing to leave and silently waiting for their owners in the ruins have become one of the most heartwarming scenes in this Sino-Nepalese border flood disaster.
On August 26, the Langtang Lirung peak in the Himalayas experienced a glacier collapse, triggering massive ice and rock avalanches and flash floods. This catastrophe ravaged areas along the China-Nepal border, resulting in over 1,000 deaths and thousands missing.
According to a report from The Independent on Tuesday (September 1), in the Trishuli Bazaar of Nuwakot County in Nepal, four houses were washed away by floods. In the chaotic scene, a black-and-white dog became the sole guardian atop the rubble. The report pointed out that this dog, still wearing a collar around its neck, showed no reaction to the heavy cleaning machinery and rescue workers around it. Rescue personnel attempted to lure it with biscuits and called out various pet nicknames, but it remained unmoved.
Volunteer rescuer Bikram Thapa, interviewed by the Times of India, admitted that no matter how they called, the dog refused to leave what it considered its “former territory.” Sunil Tamang, a worker clearing the rubble, mentioned that even when a heavy JCB excavator approached, the dog remained unfazed, sitting quietly in the mud, never wagging its tail, and resolutely refusing to cross what used to be the boundary of its home yard.
Local community animal rescue volunteer Rita Gurung disclosed that rescuers had given up on forcibly removing the dog and instead started placing dry food near it every few hours. The dog only ate quietly when the surroundings were completely quiet.
India Today’s report on September 1 detailed several stories of dogs waiting in heavily affected areas along the Sino-Nepalese border.
In the Dhunge area, a dog named “Lilly” tugged at countless hearts. Lilly, with a intact collar around its neck, sat daily in the flattened area destroyed by floods. Local residents revealed that Lilly was constantly searching for the hotel owner who used to feed it, yet the owner, along with several locals, remained missing. Despite the landscape being drastically altered by mudslides, Lilly returned to the same spot every day, unwilling to leave.
India Today also reported on another tragedy occurring in the Rasuwa region. The Bhote Koshi River surged, destroying houses and separating a white dog from its owner. A video on social media platform X showed the white dog sitting quietly next to ruins, motionless, silently waiting at the spot where it last saw its owner.
A video shared by The Tribune’s online editorial team on September 1 showed a dog covered in mud, exhausted, silently sitting inside a severely damaged house structure. Despite most of the house being washed away by floods and rubble surrounding it, the dog still waited among the debris, silently awaiting its missing owner.
However, amidst the heavy disaster, there were also heartwarming reunions. The Tribune reported that after being missing for four days, a woman finally reunited with her dog. When the flood struck and the dog went missing, the woman endured agony for four days. When rescuers found the surviving dog and brought it back, the woman hugged it tightly in front of the camera, and the dog joyfully wagged its tail in its owner’s arms.
Furthermore, the Associated Press and NBC reported on another miracle involving a deaf dog named “Sweetie” in Nuwakot. Due to its deafness, Sweetie could not hear its owner’s evacuation calls before the flood. Without food and clean water, it endured alone in the ruins for five days before being successfully rescued by search teams and reunited with its owner, Shoba Shrestha.
In this disaster along the Sino-Nepalese border, which has claimed over a thousand lives, these footprints and guardianship left in the rubble remind people once again of the unwavering loyalty and steadfast devotion of dogs to their owners and homes in the face of inevitable natural disasters.