KÜÇÜK KAYA (KATV) — A central Arkansas man performed a selfless act of service, rescuing a stranded Goldendoodle who was on the brink of death and acting out of a desire to help.

Dylan McCay was scrolling through Facebook on Halloween night when he saw a post that immediately caught his attention: an injured dog abandoned on the side of the road, scared and in need of help. It was the beginning of an emotional journey for McCay and his fiancée Emily Roberts.

“As I was going through all the comments and stuff, I saw a fair amount of comments and it just seemed like nothing had been done yet and it’s definitely like an emergency.” McCay says.

He quickly jumped into his vehicle and began the rescue operation. There it was. McCay says he was possibly struck by a vehicle between Conway and Greenbrier and was carried into a nearby driveway. He found him shaking and covered in blood.

“As I got closer to him, he started crawling towards me,” McCay says.

Family members came to help. They covered the dog with blankets and took him to Greenbrier Animal Hospital, and the diagnosis was not promising. The dog had bruising on his lungs, two broken femurs (one of which was an open fracture), and doctors were seriously concerned about infection.

“The original plan was that one would be amputated and the other would need pretty serious reconstructive surgery,” says Roberts.

The microchip was also not found and they later discovered that the owner wanted to rehome the dog.

“So this dog was actually just delivered to the hospital and we looked at each other and looked at the dog and were just like we knew what we needed to do,” Roberts says.

The dog was now a member of the family. Throughout this difficult time, a Facebook community has come together to offer encouraging comments and donations.

“We’re really happy that people love him as much as we do and want to help him get better,” Roberts says.

A surgery costing over $10,000 meant McCay and Roberts had to cut back on their wedding funds.

“So the budget was eliminated,” McCay says.

They were doing everything they could to give the dog his life back, even traveling to Mississippi for extensive surgery on Monday. Now, the post-op reconstruction was nothing short of successful.

“We went into the weekend thinking he was going to have one leg amputated and then we were hoping the other leg would heal, but by Monday morning they were confident they could heal both legs, and that turned out to be true,” Roberts says.

Now part of the family, Dylan and Emily are looking forward to bringing the dog home to be with their other dogs. They plan to name him after a food item like their other pets, but chose Acklin as his middle name. Acklin is the name of the street where they found him.

The couple says they still have a long journey ahead of them with physical therapy, vaccines and neutering, but now there is light at the end of the tunnel.