Jared Twedell was recently driving out to his local recycling center when he saw something that had him stopping dead in his tracks.

“There are railroad tracks near the gate, and out of the corner of my eye, I caught this flicker of movement,” Twedell recounted. “I thought it was a deer lying on the tracks.”

It was only when Twedell got closer that he realized that the animal was a dog, not a deer! He was horrified to find that the dog had been tied to the train tracks.

“I went into panic mode,” Twedell said. “He tried to walk toward the car and the rope pulled him back.”

Though he did not know when the next train would come, Twedell knew he had to save the dog. Jumping out of his car, Twedell rushed over to the dog without hesitation.

“He was obviously scared,” Twedell said. “I was worried about whether or not he would let me get close to him. I patted my leg and said, ‘Hey little buddy!’ His tail just started wagging. That’s when I knew he would be OK with me approaching him.”

“The rope was tied in a figure eight, like you would use to tie a boat to a dock,” Twedell said. “Someone did this 100 percent on purpose. It just made me sick.”

Thankfully, Twedell was able to untie the dog and get him to safety. Afterwards, he decided to adopt the animal so that he could make sure he got all the love that he deserves!

He initially named the dog Train, but his family has since renamed him Samson.

Samson has since made friends with the family’s other pets: two rescue dogs, cats, and a Flemish giant rabbit.

“The dogs have all been getting along great,” Twedell said. “All they’ve been doing since I brought Samson home is play.”

“He’s a really great dog,” he continued. “This little guy had someone watching over him.”

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