Overweight Dog Loses 100 Pounds Thanks To Loving Foster Parent

Losing weight and getting fit isn’t just for humans, as one golden retriever recently demonstrated.

Kai, from Alberta, Canada, topped the scale at 173 pounds when he was taken to a vet to be put down. But instead of that horrible fate, the vet opted to contact Misfits of Alberta Animal Rescue to see if they could find a foster for the dog. Luckily for Kai, they found a match in Pam Heggie, Good Morning America reported.

Heggie was reportedly shocked when she saw how big Kai was and her vet was just as shocked.

“This is the most overweight animal I have ever seen,” he told her, per Good Morning America.

Heggie didn’t know the first thing about how to help the pup, but her vet reassured her that anything she could do would be helpful.

When Kai first went home with Heggie, it took him 20 minutes to make it up the stairs and get through the front door. Despite how hard it seemed, she was determined to help him.

She began with walking Kai three times a day. They walked a few minutes before work, when she got home in the afternoon, and in the evening.

“Literally, he went five to 10 steps, and then he would lay down and start panting,” Heggie told Good Morning America.

But she did not give up and every day Kai could go a little farther.

“We went to the closest neighbor’s driveway and then the next neighbor over,” she said.

But that wasn’t all. Kai also took water therapy lessons that strengthened his back legs and helped him increase his stamina. In addition, Heggie also put Kai on a strict diet.

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Heggie said that Kai was still a happy dog, despite how difficult things would get for him.

“He learned that I was gonna help him and we were gonna be OK,” she said.

Kai’s strength improved every day. He was finally able to jump up on the bed, get into the car on his own, climb stairs, and run in the dog park. Over a year, he lost 100 pounds.

Heggie said that people can learn a lot from animals.

“He shows you how to do a really big task literally one day at a time,” she said.

“He doesn’t worry about yesterday, he doesn’t worry about tomorrow, he just focuses on what needs to be done today and he does it.”

The best news is that Heggie also decided to adopt the incredible canine.