A few years ago, Jessie Goetze was driving past a rocky beach in New South Wales, Australia, when she noticed a dog sprinting along the shoreline. He was soaking wet, darting in and out of the waves — and completely alone.
At first, Goetze assumed the pup had wandered off from his family. She pulled over and tried to gently coax him into her car, but the frightened dog bolted. Hoping to reunite him with his owners, she snapped a few photos and shared them on Facebook.
The responses were devastating.
People in the comments recognized the dog — and confirmed he hadn’t been lost at all. He had been abandoned.
Heartbroken but determined, Goetze began returning to the beach where she’d first seen him. She went every day. Sometimes several times a day.
“Each day I visited,” Goetze said in a video for The Dodo, “he’d be in the water, just scouring the sea.”
To her, it looked like the dog was searching for the people who had left him behind — standing in the surf, staring out at the horizon, waiting for someone who wasn’t coming back.
“It was heartbreaking to see how focused he was on trying to find his owner,” Goetze said.
For more than a month, Goetze patiently worked to earn the dog’s trust. But after everything he’d endured, he was terrified of people and kept his distance.
“He was scared of humans,” she said.
Then one day, something changed.
The dog cautiously approached Goetze and accepted food from her hand. Moments later, he surprised her even more.
“He literally sat on my lap,” Goetze said.
That was the moment Goetze knew he was ready. She brought him home and named him Ocean.
Almost immediately, Ocean’s true personality emerged. He bonded with Goetze’s family, including her young children, wagging nonstop and soaking up every bit of affection he could get.
“He just seemed so happy to be around people again,” Goetze said.
Once Ocean had fully recovered and regained his confidence, Goetze helped connect him with a woman eager to give him a forever home. Saying goodbye wasn’t easy — but seeing Ocean finally loved and safe made it all worth it.
“It just brings me so much joy knowing we found him such an incredible home,” Goetze said.
After weeks of searching the sea for the family who left him, Ocean finally found the people who would never abandon him again.
