Banjo the Dog Almost Lost His Life to a Train; Now He Gets a Home Near the Beach

"We saw his picture and we both fell in love with him, the most beautiful dog we've ever seen," said Banjo's adopter.

Remember the 78-year-old man who tied a 10-month-old terrier mix to railroad tracks in early April, later telling authorities his family "didn't want the dog" and he "didn't know what to do with him?"

Remember how a train was coming and the conductor slammed on the brakes, stopping just yards before the dog? Well, this story has finally come to an end -- and it's a good one.

Banjo -- so named by the train depot employees who saved him -- has finally found his forever home. 

Meet Jeff and Louisa Moore and their Tibetan Terrier, Lali. Their plea to adopt Banjo was among the more than 1,300 emails from potential adopters that flooded Riverside County's Department of Animal Services after the story of Banjo went viral. People wrote from around the world, crashing the department's site at one point for 24 hours. 

"We saw his picture and we both fell in love with him, the most beautiful dog we've ever seen," Louisa told KABC.

Jo Marie Upegui, Banjo's temporary caretaker -- and the one with final say on who would take Banjo home -- was thrilled with the decision.

"I'm just so happy with the choice we all made," she told USA Today. "It's just such a loving family."

How did the Moores pull it off? By caring. They "constantly" checked in on Banjo via email. And they also live near the beach (Huntington Beach in Southern California, no less) as well as a dog park.

Still, they were shocked when they got the call.

"We had no clue that we were actually the ones who would be picked, so we feel pretty special," said Jeff.

"This family is so dedicated to their animals," Upegui told KABC. "They never leave the dog alone, and I thought that was really important to Banjo because Banjo's had such a ... it's been a scary trip for him." 

"Tonight we're just going to go home and hang out," Jeff said. "We have a big field that's right next to our place that about a dozen of us all go out with our dogs, and they all get along really well, so it'll be fun introducing him to all the dogs. I'm sure they'll love him."

The Moores plan to keep the public updated on Banjo's life though new Instagram and Facebook pages; we'll update this post when those go live. 

Via KABCUSA Today; photos via Riverside County's Department of Animal Services' Facebook

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Saving the Dogs of Puerto Rico's Ghastly Dead Dog Beach

It is almost impossible to fathom the atrocities that take place every day at Puerto Rico's infamous "Dead Dog Beach." There, sweet mutts (Satos, as they're called) are left to starve and die -- vulnerable to heartless kids who stop by for the "fun" of beating and tormenting helpless animals. Thankfully, the SATO Project of Puerto Rico rescues as many of these castaway canines as possible, transporting them to animal shelters in the Northeast, where they are made available for adoption.

Last Tuesday, six Sato survivors arrived at Kent Animal Shelter in Calverton, New York. As is typical of this sweet species of mutt, no two are alike -- Satos come in every size and stripe, each one uniquely adorable. Their transport to safety was part of Kent's rescue program in partnership with other humane organizations saving lives -- not only in the Long Island-New York metro region, but as far away as St. Croix and the Turks & Caicos. 

Kent Animal Shelter is an award-winning nonprofit that was established in 1968 as a no-kill haven for abandoned, neglected, or abused animals. Saving the Sato Six was Kent's first partnership with the SATO Project. Executive director Pamela Green recalls her first contact with the rescue group. 

"When I heard about Dead Dog Beach and what happens to the animals there, when I saw the photos on the Internet and heard the stories of torture, I knew that we had to help," she says. "Like so many other islands of paradise, it's no paradise for strays. The whole scenario of Dead Dog Beach is extremely disturbing, where animals are abandoned to die. The fact that youths come to the beach at night and randomly torture dogs there is disgusting and hard to digest. We can find these animals loving homes, and they don't have to suffer like that."

Pamela also had a personal reason for reaching out to help: "I visited San Juan a number of years ago and saw large numbers of stray dogs infested with mange, pitifully thin and totally ignored. So it makes my day to be able to reach out and help dogs in this place where it is unfortunate to be born if you are a canine."

She promises that Kent will continue to help the SATO Project, adding it to its list of rescue partners, which includes municipal animal shelters in the South and Western United States, as well as Best Friends Animal Society, which rescues dogs from puppy mills in the Midwest.

"The Dead Dog Beach rescues are highly adoptable and are all relatively small," Pamela concludes. "Their personalities are great. Maybe they know they have been rescued and are just grateful!"

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Blogger on the beach: lunch, laughter and dog talk

May 13, 2011

I had lunch with my friend Susan Hamil earlier this week. We sat out on the patio of a Mexican restaurant overlooking the ocean and ate guacamole and fish tacos. I indulged in a Margarita. We have known each other forever, and often see each other at events or talk on the phone, but we hadn’t just sat down for lunch in years. After we finished slicing and dicing the dog world, we began swapping stories about our old ladies.

Susan has a Pug named Xena, who is 14 years old. Xena was six months old and in need of a new home when Susan ran across her, and they’ve been good friends ever since. It still makes me laugh when I remember the time one of Susan’s show dog friends commented unfavorably about Xena’s conformation. “Xena’s a performance Pug,” Susan haughtily replied.
In their day, both Xena and Bella were athletic little dogs. Xena did the typical Pugtona 500, racing through the house, on and off the furniture, and Bella could jump three feet straight up onto our bed or launch herself perfectly into someone’s lap. Now their treacherous bodies have betrayed them, and they have trouble getting around. We love them dearly, but it’s hard not to laugh at some of the things they do.

Susan almost fell off her chair when I talked about finding Bella “splatted” on the floor (more, I think, at the use of the word splatted than at poor Bella’s predicament), and I laughed until I cried at her description of Xena’s commands when she wants something. On the sofa? “Gabble gabble gabble.” Off the sofa? “Gabble gabble gabble.” Neither Xena nor Bella “talked” much when they were younger. I can count one two fingers the number of times I’ve heard Bella bark. But in their old age they’ve found their voices. Xena gabbles; Bella huffs, trills and moans. The huff is my cue that she’s standing up and I’d better stop what I’m doing and take her outside. The trills and moans are distress signals. She is splatted on the floor or has gotten herself stuck in a corner. Mealtimes don’t require any vocalizations, just walking around me and nudging me until I put the food down.

We had a great time. Now, if I could just get Susan and John to come to the World Dog Show, we could do lunch in Paris…

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