When Stray Rescue of St. Louis received a call about a dog sleeping on a residential street during a heat wave, they kindly asked the caller to send them pictures of the pup to better assess how to help.

“The picture this person sent us showed the dog lying down,” Donna Lochmann, chief life saving officer at Stray Rescue of St. Louis, told The Dodo. “It was hard to tell, but it kind of looked like you could see his hip bones. So I knew it was definitely worth checking out.”

Lochmann quickly made her way to the scene but couldn’t find the pup. She decided to turn into an alley at the last minute — and that’s when she spotted him.

“I saw him there, laying in the street,” Lochmann said. “He was laying in the water coming up from a gutter, probably to keep cool because it was so hot.”

As Lochmann got closer, she quickly realized how desperately the dog needed help.

“When I pulled up to the end of the alley, he must’ve heard me,” Lochmann said. “I watched him pick his head up, kind of look around and then flop his head back down on the curb as if he’d completely given up.”

The image of the dog laying alone on the street with no energy or hope for the future broke Lochmann’s heart.

“It just killed me,” Lochmann said. “I said to myself, ‘There’s no way I’m leaving this dog here.’”

You can watch the moment Lochmann first spotted the pup here:

Luckily for Lochmann, the downtrodden dog had absolutely no objections to being rescued. He even walked himself to her jeep without a leash.

“I started talking to him and said, ‘Come on, buddy … we’re gonna help you.”

As soon as he got to the car, the pup made himself right at home.

“I keep blankets in the back of the jeep, so he laid down right away,” Lochmann said. “He seemed so grateful for air conditioning and a place to be comfortable.”

The sweet dog, whom they later named Curby, thoroughly enjoyed what the shelter called his “freedom ride” to safety.

“He went to a foster home pretty quickly,” Lochmann said. “A couple saw his video and the wife said to the husband, ‘That dog should not stay in a shelter.’ So they came and picked him up.”

Curby is loving his new foster home, where he has two extremely loving parents and a dog sibling he loves cuddling up with. He’s finally started to put on some weight, and his personality has really started to blossom in his new home.

“His foster parents are absolutely in love with him,” Lochmann said. “He turned out to be the sweetest boy ever.”

To help pups like Curby get the care they need, make a donation to Stray Rescue of St. Louis.