Typically that big fancy word, humanitarian, conjures up images of Albert Schweitzer working out of French Equatorial Africa or Eleanor Roosevelt with her knitting needles at the United Nations.

Not a man walking his dogs down a lane in Franklin Furnace, Ohio. But that is just what happened last week when George Hunter was taking his pets out for some air down to the marina there.

Along the side of the road was huddled an aging, dirty mixed breed terrier cold and scared, desperately needing to be rescued. But too terrified to respond to the approaching kindness of a stranger.

“The dog looks like it’s been abandoned, but it keeps staying there like he expects the owner to come back,” he said at the time he contacted The Tribune to help find the owners. “He has been holding his position. I’ve tried to coax him. I bring food down. He cries.”

For five days Hunter went down to feed the animal and try to bring him back home. He was joined by some of his neighbors, including one who brought a blanket for the little dog to lie on.

On the fifth day Hunter made his daily pilgrimage with a friend and they were able to pick the dog up. Then Hunter took it home, bathed it several times and let it sleep on the sofa, giving it the first moment of security in days.

Such a small gesture of kindness, but such a big example of how each and everyone of us should behave.