Dog carrying his own bag of food in Hurricane Harvey goes viral

In the wake of natural disasters, it’s not unusual to see residents walking through the streets carrying food and supplies. It is a little unusual to see those residents walking on four legs.

A photo of a dog named Otis carrying a bag of dog food through the streets of Texas as Hurricane Harvey battered the state has gone viral.

Neighbor Tiele Dockens captured the moment while she was checking on her neighborhood in the city of Sinton, Texas, which is on the coast near Corpus Christi and about 200 miles from Houston.

“I was driving around checking on family and friends’ properties that decided to evacuate,” Dockens told Weather.com. “Otis was strolling the streets after the owner let him out.”

“With his dog food, of course,” she added.

Otis, as it turns out, had briefly escaped from the watch of Salvador Segovia, who was watching Otis for his 5-year-old grandson, Carter. Segovia said Otis is something of a local celebrity and is used to going out to eat on the town.

“Otis can go to Dairy Queen and he can get a hamburger,” Segovia told Chron.com. “He also goes to H.E.B. [a grocery chain]. He’s not a stray. He’s a good dog.”

Well, if Otis was a local celebrity before, he is a national one now! Dockens’ post had been shared more than 30,000 times by Monday and provided a much-needed moment of levity and general “DAAAW” amidst the tragedy in Texas.

Otis wasn’t the Hurricane Harvey dog to go viral. A Dickson resident posted a photo on Instagram of two dogs waiting in a boat for rescue.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYUwDM4DaIu/

The person who posted the above photo explained the dogs had food and it appeared the owner would be coming back for them, so hopefully we will be able to look back on this photo one day and turn it into a “Gone Fishin'” meme.

While these dogs found a boat, one animal that you would not immediately think of as being in trouble from flooding are bats, what with them being able to fly and all. But with water levels reaching the tops of bridges where bats were sleeping, even they needed rescuing.

As the rain continues in Houston, one can only hope people will continue to help each other and their pets as everyone flees for higher ground.

You can support people affected by Hurricane Harvey through the Red Cross of Central & South Texas.