Lilica the junkyard mutt walks 8 miles a day to feed her hungry friends

A 2013 video about an abandoned dog and her determination to feed her junkyard friends is going viral this week.

Lilica the mutt was abandoned in front of a junkyard in São Carlos, Brazil.

Neile Vãnia Antônio, the owner of the junkyard, watched the dog quickly befriend the other stray animals there: dogs, cats and chickens.

Three years ago, Lilica gave birth to eight puppies. Realizing there wasn't enough food available nearby to feed her litter, Lilica started leaving the junkyard every day in search of food.

She'd come home with enough to feed her pups.

"In the beginning she brought food to her puppies, but in time she began bringing food for the other animals here in [the] junkyard as well," says Antônio.

After her puppies were adopted, Lilica continued to search for food to help feed other animals.

Then she met Lucia Helena de Souza, a kind animal lover who lives on the other side of town, about four miles away.

Every night, de Souza greets Lilica at their usual meeting place with a bag of food. When the dog has her fill, de Souza ties up the bag so Lilica can carry the leftovers back to her junkyard friends.

"I don't travel, I don't go places and stay for too long because of her … because I know she relies on me, so it's a commitment that I have with her, and a commitment she has with me too, 'cause she comes every day," de Souza says in the video.

Just as Lilica depends on de Souza to feed her, so do Lilica's furry friends depend on her make the daily eight-mile round trip to feed them.

It's a lesson for us all, Antônio says.

"We as human beings barely share things with others, but an animal sharing things with other animals is a lesson, a lesson for us."