"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated"
--Mahatma Gandhi

When Deana and Barry Moore left West Kelowna for a Mexican vacation, the last thing they expected was to be coming home with a new member of the family.

"My parents winter down there and my husband I vacationed there for Christmas," says Deana.

Photo: Contributed - Deana Moore

After being hit by a vehicle, an injured Luka was left to fend for himself until Deana and Barry Moore stepped in to help.

Even before they had arrived, the Moores had heard about Solovino, a stray dog that had been hit by a vehicle and left to die on the side of the road. What's worse, it appeared the owners refused to allow humane intervention.

The name Solovino is typically given to street dogs in Mexico and roughly translated means "he came alone."

Solovino had suffered severe damage to his hind quarters and blindness in his left eye.

He was unable to hunt or fight for food and was slowing starving to death on the side of a busy road in a ditch.

When they arrived in LaManznilla, Deana and Solovino would meet.

"His desire, his willingness to live is just so amazing. He has such an amazing spirit."

The next day they returned to the spot where Solovino had laid for months and discovered that no one was claiming ownership of the suffering canine, who may have been there since September.

"My Dad, along with other people in the town started feeding him every day. The ditch he was lying in was beside a home and they were under the impression that he was the homeowners dog, but in fact that was not the case."

Fortunately, Deana speaks Spanish and was able to communicate with the woman in the home.

"She said 'This is not my dog. I can't feed him. I can barely feed my children. Please take him.' and that was pretty much it."

It was Christmas eve and Solovino was going to spend the holidays with the Moores.

They originally planned to offer him comfort and, if he wasn't going to recover, have him dealt with humanely.

But like Deana said, Solovino has spirit and wasn't ready to give up.

After a few days of regular feedings, love and basic grooming Solovino began to get stronger.

"He went from being very sickly to behaving like a normal dog."

They cleaned him up at a doggy spa and then took him to the vet where they were told there's a good chance he would recover.

"They said he's not too bad. He's got a bad hip, the top and bottom front teeth are completely worn down and he's blind in one eye. He also contracted a blood virus"

"That's when we decided, OK were going take this on. He's not going to be put down because he wants to live."

Photo: Contributed - Deana Moore

Luka recovers from hip surgery as Maggie stays close by.

Originally they wanted to find a good home for Solovino, now re-named Luka, in Mexico.  However, on January 22, Barry was bringing Luka home to West Kelowna.

The next step in Luka’s journey was hip surgery, and with the help of the Westbank Animal Care Hospital the procedure went without a hitch, however, x-rays taken ahead of the operation revealed something else.

A some point in his life, Luka had been shot by a pellet gun and the pellet was still lodged in his chest.

These days Luka is recovering from his surgery at his new home in the Okanagan enjoying the company of the Moores and their two dogs.

Deana says their English Lab "Maggie" warmed up to him almost instantly, however, their Husky Shepherd “Jasper” needs a little more time to get used to his new bunkmate.

As you can imagine, the Moores are big supporters of pet adoption. On top of taking in Luka, both Maggie and Jasper were rescues from the SPCA.

"Go out and adopt an animal today. You will be happier, healthier and richer in spirit for doing so."

You can read the entire story of Luka's rescue and follow her progress here.