An unknown dog is roaming around in a rest area
Head of the rest area: Like a turtle's shell, covered with thick fur,
looking quite mangled and unsightly...Makes me feel so pitiful looking at it
Usually wanders towards the parking lot...
The parking lot of the rest area where the dog usually appears at
However...
Crew: Can't seem to spot the dog...
Searching every nook and cranny, but the dog isn't visible
Head of the rest area: Over there, there, there!! Behind that van!
Finally, spotted the dog wandering around the rest area parking lot
Startled by people's presence, the dog quickly hides
Crew: There, there, there!!
As they approach carefully by narrowing the distance, the dog shows her appearance
Like a mop, matted layers of fur
The fur on her back has hardened, making it look as if she's wearing some kind of armor
Head of the rest area: I think it's been around 3-4 months, from what I remember
At first, she looked almost the same as a normal dog
But since she hasn't been taken care of for about four months...
As the production crew approaches her, the dog is busy running away
As she's too wary, she doesn't let down her guard when being close to a certain distance
How did this dog end up coming to this rest area?
Head of the rest area: It's nearly impossible for dogs to come to the rest area
Out the rest area, is the highway, so one cannot cross over the center wall to the other side
In front of the rest area, there's a highway which no one can freely go outside
In the back, the rest area is completely surrounded by mountains so they're isolated from the outside.
So it seems impossible for her to come to the rest area on her own.
Visitor at the rest area: It's dangerous if you go over there...!
Scary situation to see the dog wandering around the parking lot where the cars pass by
However, she doesn't seem to be wary of cars at all
Suddenly,
she approaches one car, seems to be looking at something
Rest area employee: When a car comes, it's not the same car, but she
but she sits right next to it and stares at the person at the driver's seat
with a kind of longing, sad-looking eyes
As if she's looking for someone, she looks closely at the inside of the car...
And the spot where she goes toward is...another car with people inside
Why is she checking each and every person in the car?
Visitor at the rest area: It's such a pity. Why would someone raise her only to abandon the dog?
Why would anyone throw the dog away?
Crew: You think she's been abandoned?
Visitor at the rest area: Of course, it seems as though she's abandoned.
Visitor at the rest area: It's hard to throw the dog away in the neighborhood
This is the easiest way to get here and is also the easiest way to stop by
So the person might've stopped by and left her here at night...
Rest area where thousands of people make a stop a day
Maybe she was abandoned here alone and so was unable to leave the rest area...
After a while, the dog moves to the lawn beneath the lighting tower
After taking a sit, she gazes at the square blankly
Head of the rest area: Always sitting there for a long time...
Today, one of the employees said she must've been abandoned here
We don't know for sure if she was truly separated by her owner here, but...
One thing we know for sure is that her waiting gets longer and longer...
That night
She's wandering around the parking lot in the pitch-black night
She suddenly goes somewhere...and that was in between the building
She disappeared in an instant
Head of the rest area: I think she went up here. I feel like...
Looked closely behind the building where the dog disappeared off to, but couldn't find a trace
Next afternoon
The dog goes inside the building again and disappeared somewhere
Aside from 3-4 times being at the rest area, she isn't found at the rest area at all...
Crew: Where did she go?
Head of the rest area: Dunno if she went back here up to the mountains or not...
We only saw her going back here...
Where is she coming from after hiding?
We decided to install observation cameras all over the back of the rest area
Time ticks by...
Crew: Oh, here, here! Came out of here!
Crew #2: Beneath? Crew #1: Yes, beneath the container box!
She comes out beneath the small crack of the container
A hideout no one had expected!
It's surprising to see how she's living in such a place...
Head of the rest area: How did she get in there?
Rest area employee: (Inside), I think there are pups! Crew: What? Pups? Rest area employee: Yes, I think there're pups
Head of the rest area: Can ya see it right now? Rest area employee: They came up the front. Behind the iron bar.
Must be pups putting their heads against the dog
Head of the rest area: Oh! They're here! Next to the dog!
They're pups!! Babies, babies! Around 2 or so, I saw it just now!
Tried to put an endoscope camera through the small gap
As it gets in through the cold and bumpy soil for a long time...
Next to the mother dog, four pups are huddled close together
Head of the rest area: Wow, she truly raised them well
Rest area employee: Dogs are better than humans seeing this now...
Rest area employee: Even owners abandoned their dogs...
But for her, she takes care of her pups so well since she's now a mother
To check the health condition of the mother dog and her puppies, a veterinarian came to visit
How did she raise pups in a poor environment where it's hard to take of herself...?
Vet: I think it's been one and a half to two months (since birth).
In such cold weather, you can say it's a miracle they survived...
The fact that they're alive is incredible, but it seems like the mother must've been concerned a lot for her pups...
Vet: Seeing that only her back fur is like that,
when giving birth to the pups, couldn't take care of the amniotic fluid when it burst
The mother dog comes out of the container after taking care of the pups
Looking after her lost owner and taking care of the pups...It must be so strenuous
Her body is exhausted but won't give up waiting with a ray of hope...
If she continues to live outside in the freezing weather, she can't be assured of the dangers that she might face!
With the help of the firefighters, they decided to rescue both the mother dog and her pups!
Fire chief: Since it's near the highway, if she escapes to the outside, secondary safety issues might occur.
Try to rescue beneath the container box...
First, block all entrances on both sides so they can't escape towards the dangerous road
And lure the mother dog out of the container box with food!
As she smells the food, mother dog reacts
With caution, she carefully steps out of the container
And the firefighter approaches her carefully while the mother dog is busy eating
Crew: Caught her!
The mother dog was rescued safely without any accidents, which they worried the most about
Now, all there's left is for the mother dog to be reunited with the pups
The pups are found deep inside the container, so it is a difficult situation to take them out
Using a long stick, they pull the pup's legs to drag it outside and they succeeded!
Among the pups, the first pup to see the outside world!
Firefighter: There are two on the inside! Wait a minute!
Firefighter: Going out, out!
Thanks to everyone's support, all the pups were rescued outside safely from the container!
The moment the pups went back into the mother dog's arms...
A family reunited inside a safe cage, and not beneath the cold container box!
Rest area employee: It's so touching. The fact that they can be rescued like that...
Fire Chief: I hope that they grow up healthy in a lovely place.
With warm care and support from people, the mother dog, and her pups are about to start a new chapter of their life!
As soon as the head of the rest area clocks off work, he came to the hospital where the dogs were taken to
Vet: Yes, here. Looks completely different, eh?
Head of the rest area: Looks that different?!
After getting groomed, the mother dog changed so much that he has a hard time recognizing her
Vet: Blood test showed low calcium levels
It's because she was trying to breastfeed, so she used all the calcium in her body, so it came out low
It's true she has a disease, but it's not to the point of her life being at risk
If she gets treated well, you don't have to worry about her.
Head of the rest area: It's so nice to see that she's healthy
She should've been this pretty earlier!
She was in such a messy state back then 'cause she was abandoned, huh?
Mother dog under the arms of the man as if she's under the arms of her dad :)
Head of the rest area: She's so pretty and so gentle.
After she was rescued, I thought a lot about it.
I've grown attached a lot during then, and even more, she has nowhere to go...
So I decided to take care of her and raise her
Crew: You will raise her yourself?
Head of the rest area: Yes, yes!!
At the end of the long wait full of pain, there's light at the end of the tunnel
Now, we hope for only happiness under the arms of your new family ..★
(Pups have been sent off to another lovely family later on)