Cop Lacking Sleep Becomes Internet Hero After Photo Of Him And Abandoned Puppy Gets Posted Online

When we go to work, we expect to head home at the end of the day. We may put in a good eight hours but when it comes to putting in any more, we might not be all that happy about it. That isn’t the case with many policemen. They spend long hours on the job and they may even be called on to do more when their shift is over. Admittedly, some police officers may complain about it but this hometown hero, Officer Kareem Garibaldi went above and beyond the call of duty.

He is a member of the Lakeland Police Department in Florida. He is out on the streets, protecting the residents of that community and he has become well known for being a caring and dedicated police officer. Many police officers will take care of the humans in their territory but for officer Garibaldi, the love for the community does not stop with humans. As you are about to see, it extends into the animal realm as well in a most amazing way.

When this dedicated police officer was on patrol a couple of months ago, he found a stray dog. It was a pitbull-boxer mix and she didn’t have any tags. He picked her up, took her back down to the station and waited to figure out what he could do.

He wasn’t able to track down her owners the next day, so he got the local SPCA involved. He wanted to see if she needed medical attention.

The amazing thing about his dedication is the fact that it was his third consecutive 12-hour shift. This police officer was absolutely worn out but he couldn’t sleep until he knew what would happen to this adorable puppy.

Let’s put it this way, he tried not to sleep but when the shelter’s safety manager, Connie Johnson, came in that morning, she found this waiting for her:

“He was exhausted, the puppy was exhausted, and they were sleeping. It was one of those moments that just grab your heart. He was so determined to get her help.

It clearly was a selfless thing to do. He wasn’t thinking about getting home to sleep. He was thinking about what he could do to help this puppy survive. He actually woke up at one point just to see if she was OK, then he went back to sleep.”

The dog was later named Hope. She was relatively healthy, aside from some mites but they still didn’t know what to do with her. The owners could still not be found so officer Garibaldi took her back to the station. One of the dispatchers absolutely fell in love with her and adopted her right then and there.

A few weeks later, it was reported that Hope had settled in and was learning a few commands. A little TLC can obviously go a long way!

After the story hit social media, people started praising officer Garibaldi for going out of his way to care for the dog. Congressman Dennis A Ross even heard about it so he presented him with the Hometown Hero Award.

“I’m a dog owner myself and just seeing that puppy out there kind of broke my heart … It was just one of those things, I wanted to just give it a fighting chance … With everything that’s going on around the world, just do one small little thing just to try to make it better. Just make a difference one day at a time.”