“He was like, ‘We can’t just leave this animal here.’”
A family road trip over Labor Day weekend turned into an unexpected rescue after Alexandra and Rollins Luckey stopped at a gas station in Columbus, Georgia, on their way home from Florida to Atlanta.
Waiting outside was a large pit bull.
At first, the Luckeys assumed he belonged to someone nearby. But people working at the gas station told them the dog had been hanging around for quite some time and no one seemed to know who was caring for him.
“There was just this dog chilling in front, and the people inside were like, ‘Yeah, he’s been here for forever. We don’t know who owns him,’” Alexandra told The Dodo.
What surprised the couple most was how friendly he was.
The dog approached them immediately, acting more like a family pet than a stray. He was affectionate, calm and eager for attention.
“He came right up to us and was so friendly,” Alexandra said.
The Luckeys’ 6-year-old son, Reese, connected with the dog almost instantly.
Once he realized the pit bull appeared to have been left there alone, Reese became deeply upset. He could not understand why anyone would leave such a gentle animal behind, and the situation eventually brought him to tears.
Rollins said his son felt strongly that walking away would be the wrong thing to do.
“Our son’s a really good kid. He knows right from wrong, and not just that, he knows what’s good and bad,” Rollins said. “He was like, ‘We can’t just leave this animal here.’”
At first, taking home a dog they had just met at a gas station sounded impulsive.
But after watching Reese’s reaction — and seeing how affectionate the dog was — Alexandra and Rolli