Poor Dog Gets Covered In Hot Tar, Turns Into A Rock—Then Gets Rescued, Then Your Heart Melts

Whoever said 'it's a dog's life' obviously never met this poor dog. One minute it's walking along the road in India, probably wondering if a tourist will take pity on it and give it some of their lunch, then next it's fallen into a pool of hot tar and become a dog statue—frozen in the black residue and stuck to the floor. Oh, cruel world!

But fortunately for him, he was spotted by a kind stranger who called Animal Aid Unlimited, a bunch of superheroes in India who help out street animals.

They took the unfortunate mutt back to their place in Udaipur, Rajasthan and rubbed vegetable oil on him.

At the shelter several care-givers got to work rubbing vegetable oil into the tar. After about 15 minutes of gently massaging in the oil, the tar began to heat up and melt at our fingertips. Slowly but surely, after nearly two hours of rubbing the oil he was ready for his first bath. 90% of the tar washed out in that first bath and we waited till the next day to start another round of oiling. The poor guy was exhausted and needed to rest and eat.

Over the course of the next several days we did more oiling and bathing sessions and by day 5 he was totally free from the tar. (via)

And lo! He recovered and rose like a phoenix from the ashes, except a much more tarry phoenix who rose from a tar pool and not ashes. But you get my drift. And now he's a happy dog bouncing about all happy and dog-like.

It just goes to show you, if you ever fall into a pit of burning hot tar, make sure you have some vegetable oil to hand. Or carry a little pot around with you, just in case.