By the Grace of God a Man and His Dog Were Saved in the Nick of Time

A story coming out of Arizona sees a man and his companion surviving in a harsh environment that could have killed just about anyone else.

Mario Castro, 54, from Arizona recently hit the road to travel to his mother in El Paso, Texas to visit her. However, the fun little trip soon turned into a long stand still as he and his companion were both stranded.

Driving toward his mother’s, when he was about 90 minutes out, Castro called to give her a heads up that he was getting closer. However, after missing his next exit on the interstate, he found himself stalled on a dirt road after hitting a rock.

Now if you know anything about Texas or Arizona, you know that it is very very hot! Especially in the summertime, things can get dryer than a bone, and if you’re not careful you can become dehydrated quickly or have a heat stroke.

At that point, Castro decided to leave the vehicle and venture on to find help, but there wasn’t anybody to be found. He walked up and down the dirt road and found nothing but dry flat land. He wasn’t convinced he was completely out of help’s reach, so he made his way back to his vehicle.

Castro waited for hours with his companion, Zoe, who is an older puppy. The hours turned into days, and the Texas heat didn’t help the situation at all. With temperatures moving towards 100 degrees, the sun continued to beat down on them.

“It was very difficult, and I was almost on the verge of death. I would get so thirsty, I would become dehydrated, but then I would find a watering hole, and get some water and rehydrate again and then head out again,” Castro said.

Castro said that he was ready to give up and accept his fate alongside man’s best friend, noting that he thought he was living his last day on earth, and his companion didn’t look any better, and he believed it was her last day as well.

However, that’s when things took a turn.

A mechanic, Martinez, had seen Castro making an SOS sign with fire and immediately drove over to see what was going on. He was originally driving around and checking on the back roads with his wife when he came across Castro.

“I saw he was dragging his feet — carrying some old boots, maybe clothing — and struggling to follow me, so I stopped,” he said. He added he was a little weary to approach Castro at first, and who wouldn’t be at this point?

Martinez took Castro and his furry friend to a hotel where Martinez and his wife soon realized just how dire things were for the two. They witnessed Castro and his pup drinking and eating as if they hadn’t had a drop of water or bite to eat in days, and the fact is that they hadn’t.

Later, the next day Martinez returned to the hotel and took Castro back to his broke down vehicle and helped fix the vehicle back up.

Castro believes he was saved in the nick of time as he was counting on not living passed that last day.

“We both almost died if it hadn’t been for him,” he said.

Matinez also reflects that things would have turned different if he and his wife hadn’t shown up right when they did.

Being stranded for six days his dog never left his side, and they would have probably died together if it came to that, but thanks to the grace of God it didn’t.