Professional football player brave dangerous floodwaters to save stranded dogs

• Brady Oliveria is a player for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
• He is a native of Manitoba. 
• He often volunteers to rescue stray and abandoned dogs in his province. 

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Brady Oliveira has a bright future ahead of him. The 24-year-old was selected 14th overall in the second round of the 2019 CFL (Canadian Football League) Draft and will start the 2022 season as the starting running back for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, a two-time defending champion.

@brady.oliveira One of the craziest rescue missions that I’ve been on! I received an alert about a dog & her 2 pups being left on a property where the community was evacuating due to the severe flooding! Pups were locked in the bathroom for 24+ hours covered in their own urine & fecies. Mom was locked outside with nowhere to go! 💔 Walking in the ice cold flood waters & getting hypothermia was one for the books! Welcome to the goodlife 🐾 #heartwearming #abandoneddogs #dogrescuer #dogrescuestory #savedogslives ♬ original sound – Brady.oliveira

Yet in one of his most recent TikTok videos, he can be seen trekking through icy floodwaters to save a stranded mama dog and her two puppies who were stuck in Manitoba’s waterlogged Peguis First Nation last week.

Some residents were unable to take their pets with them as they evacuated. Paramedics in the area attempted to call the athlete back, but he and Shai Ross, a receiver for Edmonton Elks, continued. Once he learned about the stranded pets, Oliveira believes there was “no way” he’d turn around.

When Oliveira and Ross arrived in the heavily flooded area, they walked for over 15 minutes through frigid water that reached their thighs in some places. The pair arrives at the abandoned house as seen in the video, which has been seen over 2.5 million times on TikTok, where they discover mama dog—a boxer mix—cold and afraid and stranded on the front porch. After securing her, the pair went inside and discovered two puppies who had been trapped in a bathroom without food for almost 24 hours.

The puppies are placed in a hamper, Oliveira scoops up mama dog, and the group makes the long, slow journey back to dry land.

When the crew arrived at dry land and their vehicles, the film shows them loading the dogs into the back of Oliveira’s truck, where they instantly fell asleep.

Oliveira drove the three dogs back to Winnipeg despite having numb feet, a pounding headache, and the onset of hypothermia. K9 Advocates Manitoba vets checked the dogs and de-wormed them before newly supplied fosters took the puppies home to stay warm and get some food and water.

Oliveira is happy to announce that everyone is still healthy and doing well after the icy incident and that the two puppies have been adopted by one family. Meanwhile, their mother is at Boxer Rescue Ontario, where she will be cherished and cared for while she awaits her forever home.

The incident was the most terrifying of his dozens of rescues. Over the last three years, he thinks he has saved 70 dogs from various situations. 

Oliveira received the call to action when a buddy who helps with K9 Advocates Manitoba messaged in a group chat asking for a rescue companion. Oliveira responded enthusiastically, eager to assist both First Nations people in Manitoba and stray and abandoned puppies in severe need of care and shelter.

Source: Daily Paws