JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Staff at Arlington Animal Clinic said a dog abandoned outside their building survived nearly 36 hours tied to a pipe in the Florida heat, and they\u2019re now hoping the people responsible are identified and held accountable.<\/p>\n
Security camera footage captured a couple arriving at the clinic after business hours Saturday and tying the dog to a water pipe outside the building before driving away.<\/p>\n
When employees returned Monday morning, they found the dog, dehydrated but alive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where we found him, trying to cool off, I\u2019m sure,\u201d a staff member said while pointing to the spot where the dog had dug a hole to stay cool.<\/p>\n
Hole dug by Ralph. (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
Veterinary technician Mandy Holden said the clinic staff quickly fell in love with the dog, whom they named Ralph.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came into work the following day and he was here and I fell in love with his soulful eyes,\u201d Holden said. \u201cI said, \u2018OK, well, I\u2019ll take him home.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Holden is now fostering Ralph while he waits for a permanent home.<\/p>\n
She said the dog endured dangerous conditions after being left outside from about 7 p.m. Saturday until approximately 7:30 a.m. Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was left outside in the hot baking sun,\u201d Holden said. \u201cIf you can imagine, I go outside for 30 minutes and I\u2019m dripping sweat, much less 30 hours. And with dogs not being able to sweat, they can only pant, he\u2019s lucky to be alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Mike Deutsch, a veterinarian at Arlington Animal Clinic, said abandoning an animal is never the answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are living creatures, and they deserve better than to be left tied out,\u201d Deutsch said.<\/p>\n
He said the owners could have sought help instead of abandoning the dog.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have shelters. We have contacts,\u201d Deutsch said. \u201cIf they had just come earlier Saturday, they could have talked to us and we could have found somebody who could have given him a home rather than just leaving him in the sun for a day and a half, no food and no water.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deutsch said he hopes whoever abandoned Ralph is prosecuted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like them to be prosecuted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite his ordeal, Ralph has quickly won over the clinic staff with his gentle personality.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great, great, great dog,\u201d Holden said. \u201cYou can tell just looking at him. He has been through some stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Ralph recovers, Holden said she\u2019s focused on making sure the dog has a much brighter future than his past.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going to have the best life ever now,\u201d she told him.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Staff at Arlington Animal Clinic said a dog abandoned outside their building survived nearly 36…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14324,1039,116,118,117],"class_list":["post-365565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-arlington","tag-duval-county","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}