A dog sentenced to die at its deceased owner's request has been given a chance at life by Utah's Best Friends Animal Society.
Bela was taken in by the facility after Connie Lay of Aurora, Indiana instructed the executor of her will to either cremate the dog or send her to Best Friends.
Lay's attorney, Doug Denmore, reported last month that the estate could not afford to send Bela from Indiana to Utah, and it appeared that the healthy German Shepherd would have to be put down. Once the story hit national news, however, a campaign began to save the animal.
After a social media outcry using the "#SaveBela" hashtag, Best Friends decided to step in to help.
"In this case, once we knew we were kind of part of Bela's life without ever really realizing it, we decided we would do everything we could to get him out to us," manager Christine Vergara to told KSL.com.
A worker at the nation's largest no-kill animal sanctuary drove about 3,600 miles round-trip to bring Bela to Kanab, and said the dog handled the trip surprisingly well.
"Bela handled it like a champ," John Garcia said. "Every single day he learned more, he had a lot of fun and, all in all, he's such a good dog."
The society said that Bela has behavioural and other issues, but they are working with him to increase his chances of adoption.
"It's something we do every day; we handle special needs," Vergallito explained. "We handle behavourial issues and we give them an enriched life here."
If Bela is not adopted, he will live out his days at the sanctuary. Employees said they would be happy to have him.
"He's very loyal. He gets attached very quickly," Garcia said. "It's just a matter of time before, one way or the other, he's happy and he lives a full, rich life."
