Did you see this on the weekend? Holy Poop! I don't know if I could leave my kids behind but I've never been in a life and death situation...We're just happy that everyone is okay!
Lucky dog! Adrift pooch is plucked from Pacific isle (picture from USA Today)
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Snickers the Sea Dog is barely more than a pup, but he's already an old salt.
The
8-month-old pooch spent three months adrift in the Pacific with his
owners and a parrot until their 48-foot sailboat ran aground in
December on tiny Fanning Island, 1,000 miles south of Hawaii. Snickers
and Gulliver had to be left behind as their owners hitched a ride on a
cargo vessel.
Then in March, the SOS was sent out in a boating
journal that the orphaned critters were to be destroyed on Fanning, one
of 33 scattered coral atolls that make up the remote island nation of
Kiribati.
As word spread, a bevy of people worked to rescue the
cocker spaniel and the macaw, including a man who desperately wants to
adopt them: retired Las Vegas resident Jack Joslin.
"I love
animals," Joslin told The Associated Press on Friday. "I had two dogs
up until the middle of March. Then I had to have my border collie
euthanized. The day they called saying the ashes were back was when I
read the story (about Snickers). It occurred to me I could do
something."
On April 9, Norwegian Cruise Line workers rescued
Snickers from Fanning and dropped him off on Oahu island, Hawaii, where
he will remain in quarantine until he is flown to Los Angeles.
Hawaiian
Airlines, moved by the dog's survival story, has given the go-ahead on
flying the animal for free to the mainland, said Peter Forman, a
Hawaii-based airlines historian who helped negotiate Snickers'
transport.
Forman said he expects Snickers to arrive sometime in the next three days.
Snickers'
original owners, Jerry and Darla Merrow, had set out from California's
Moss Landing but their catamaran developed mast problems, said Gina
Baurile of the Hawaiian Humane Society.
The boat drifted to the tiny atoll, where it hit a reef and the couple swam 200 yards to shore with Snickers and Gulliver.
Baurile said the pets were left in the care of islanders.
"They don't have the same concept of taking care of pets," Baurile said.
Efforts
to contact the Merrows on Friday were unsuccessful. Joslin said he has
been unable to contact the pair, and Baurile said she believes the
Hawaiian Humane Society never tried to reach them.
"The Merrows
got to the point where they had to move on with their lives," said
Forman, who is friends with Robby and Lorraine Coleman, a couple with a
sailboat off Fanning Island who originally talked to a boating journal
about Snickers.
"The Merrows basically signed a release of ownership of the dog," Forman said.
Robby Coleman started watching out for the dog and parrot on the island, Forman said.
"Robby put out the SOS and a lot of people got involved," Forman said.
Contacted by Joslin, the Hawaiian Humane Society took the lead on Snickers rescue.
The
organization worked with Norwegian Cruise Line, and a ship was sent out
to Fanning Island to pick up the dog, said Norwegian Cruise Line
spokeswoman Krislyn Hashimoto.
The Hawaiian Humane Society provided pet carriers, flea treatment and food, Baurile said.
The
dog landed in Honolulu on Wednesday, cleared Customs and has been in
quarantine since, awaiting transport to Los Angeles, Hashimoto said.
Getting the parrot off the island will be more difficult, said Joslin, who wants to adopt the animal.
There
is a plan to move Gulliver to Christmas Island, near Fanning Island,
and eventually to L.A., one of two U.S. ports that accept exotic birds.
"Snickers
is going to live with me, I hope, for a long time," Joslin said. "And
we're trying like hell to get the bird back here."
"This is Mahjong. He is a french bulldog and Fong is his master. Fong saved and adopted him from a family whose personality clashed with his slightly hyper one. His happiest day was when he came home with Fong. He loves to run around with Fong and play catch with his doggy pals sometimes but most of the time he just like to hang out and just chill. He feels that his best feature is his round head and flat face because he can look through a glass door without squashing his face. Sometimes he forgets his weight and tries to jump into the laps of people he likes (almost knocked over Fong once). This is a picture of Mahjong after a nice fun day in the sun with his best friend, Fong. Life is gooooood. "
