He should be called "Midas." Our sweet pit bull, Handsome now has a home in upstate New York with two Rottweiler "sibs", happy human parents and a large fenced in yard that abuts Harriman State Park.
Just a month ago emaciated little Handsome was brutally chained to a fence outside Ft. Greene Park here in Brooklyn, feet unable to touch the ground. The temperature was in single digits and bystanders were frozen in fear as well as cold, afraid that if they called authorities, this woe begotten waif would be put to death for the sin of being homeless.
One of the bystanders, Cathy Fendelman, is a Barker and called Rachel, figuring she would know how to save this little guy. Rachel had no idea but realized she had to act if his life was to be saved, and she had to act quickly considering he had been chained in the icy temperatures without any protection from the cold.
After approaching him safely, she warmed him up in her car and put the wheels in motion to save him. She contacted our friends VERG (Veterinary Emergency Referal Group) who took him in and fixed him up (and, yes, fixed him), our staff rallied and Care Associate Alley Jenkins offered to foster him and our friend Janet Upadhye,local reporter for DNAinfo, picked up our blog and ran with it.
Brooklyn Bark's business partners including Honest Kitchen, Cloud Star and Charlee Bear stepped forward and offered gifts of product to our little rescue.
After evaluating our sweet boy, Anthony Newman of Calm Energy Dog Training added $300 worth of training sessions.
This throw away pup must have felt his luck turning.
Handsome really must have felt his luck turning when Janet's blog was picked up by 1010WINS and CBS who contacted Rachel for an interview about Handsome looking for a home.
And suddenly the applications for adoption started rolling in. We had applications from homes in Brooklyn, in Long Island, New Jersey and upstate New York.
Suddenly our waif had a smorgasbord of possibilities, all sounding solid. We interviewed via email and Rachel picked two finalists for home visits.
Well, Handsome only made it as far as the first. He fell in love with Anne and Peter and their two Rottweilers. Dora, their female Rotti, immediately took him under her wing, err paw. She licked him, mothered him and loved him.
Willie, who outweighs Handsome by over 100 lbs. was a little scared of this newbie at first but soon decided it's nice to have another "guy" to hang with.
Peter and Anne almost cried. They had been looking for the perfect third dog for their family and something said to them, "This is the one" when they saw his picture on CBS.
He is the one.
They officially fostered him for a week, a week where he saw his first deer, where he learned to run up and down the steps, where he learned to open doors (Dora taught him) and learned to prance with his head held high.
Now the fostering is officially adoption. Our sweet boy whose brutal past could have easily ended in euthanasia, has found doggie paradise. He is loved, cared for by an adoring family and is catching up on how to be a dog - a good dog - from his Rottweiler siblings.
For our Barkers who would like to meet our doggie celebrity, he will be joining us all at our Brooklyn Bark Bark-becue in Croton Point Park on May 17.
We can't wait to see him!