Fearless Dog Stands Guard and Keeps Wounded Friend Warm on Snow-covered Train Tracks

Chances are there’s someone special in your life, but would you brave falling snow for days to cover that special someone up to keep them alive in the elements? Oh, and did I mention that this would be taking place on train tracks with heavy traffic over a two-day period?

If you’re taking a lengthy pause to consider your answer, I don’t blame you. It’s one thing to want to do something heroic, but actually putting everything on the line and doing it can be something else entirely. However, in the case of one dog and his injured friend, the choice was clear—nothing would keep them apart.

It’s still unclear how the female dog, Lucy, became injured, but something happened that caused her to become immobilized on top of a set of train tracks in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Video and pictures from the area where the incident took place showed thick snow covering the ground and a wintry-gray haze stretching as far as the eye could see. The harsh weather was one of the first problems that the other dog, a male named Panda, had to deal with to keep his wounded friend alive. So, he stayed close to Lucy to keep her warm while also keeping watch to fend off any would-be attackers.

What was perhaps even more amazing than Panda’s ability to keep Lucy warm and safe from attackers for days, however, was his ability to keep her safe from oncoming trains as well.

In a video uploaded by Denis Malafeyev, the man who shared the original video of Panda protecting Lucy on Christmas day, Panda can be seen guarding his friend, not moving from her location even in the face of a speeding train. Instead, Panda lay next to Lucy, pushing her head down so that both dogs were able to fit safely under the body of the locomotive.

It’s not known how many similar brushes with speeding trains the lucky pair survived, but Denis was able to catch one passing over the two dogs on video, and that single pass is heart-stoppingly terrifying on its own.

Thankfully, Denis and a team of other concerned Ukrainians were able to get together to bring the dogs to safety—which wasn’t exactly an easy feat, because Panda was still very protective of Lucy, and he wasn’t ready to ease up enough to entrust his hurt friend to human helpers.

"Several attempts to remove the animal from the rail were in vain, because the dog strongly defended her from us." Denis wrote in a post on his Facebook page.  Thankfully, following a number of unsuccessful tries, the team was finally able to coax both dogs off of the tracks.

Panda and Lucy traveled to a local animal shelter in the back of Denis’s car, and after healing up they will hopefully be off to live in a loving new home together.