Viral Photo Shows Dog Carrying Food After Harvey, #RefugeeDog Trends On Twitter

A photo of a dog carrying a bag of food on a street in the northwest part of Corpus Christi, after Hurricane Harvey triggered havoc in Texas over the weekend, has gone viral since it was posted on Facebook on Saturday.

The photo was shared by a Facebook user, Tiele Dockens. She wrote in the caption: "This dog is walking around Sinton TX carrying a entire bag of dog food with him. LOL #refugee.(sic)"

Dockens, cleared in her Facebook post, that the dog was not a stray. The Facebook image was shared over 30,000 times at the time of publishing this story.

As the picture went viral on Twitter, "#refugeedog" started trending on the microblogging site. Some of the users, in their posts , called the dog a "CanineAidWorker," while some said he was a "looter." Most users hailed him as a hero and praised his actions.

The German shepherd from Sinton, Texas, Otis, was said to have accidentally got loose on Friday from his porch prompting his 65-year-old owner Salvador Segovia to searched him on the streets, the Houston Chronicle reported. "I kept yelling his name and yelling his name and he wasn’t around," Segovia told the Chronicle.

Segovia said Otis had been found and brought back home safe. "Otis is an all around special dog," he said. "He’s been instrumental in helping comfort Carter following numerous hospital visits for seizures and asthma. Otis is also a local celebrity," he added.

"Otis can go to Dairy Queen (a fast food store in Texas) and he can get a hamburger. He’s the only dog allowed to lie down in front of the county court house," the Chronicle quoted Segovia as saying. "He also goes to H.E.B. (a grocery store). He’s not a stray. He’s a good dog."

Otis is around six years old, Segovia told the Washington Post. He said he adopted the dog when he was just a puppy. Recalling how he adopted Otis, he said one day he saw a man driving near their residence in Texas and had the dog and was planning to abandon it when Segovia decided to adopt the dog. "I said, ‘No, no, no, leave him here, we’ll keep him," he said. "He left the dog here, and it became my grandson’s dog."

While the dog and his owner and Dockens’ family were all safe, the city of Sinton and nearby Papalote, where Dockens resides, faced power outage and was without water till Saturday evening. "People are holding up good," Dockens told the Huffington Post, adding the rescue teams have been working to restore power and residents were helping to clear the streets after the storm.