Dog Missing After Hurricane Sandy Found at Shelter Day Before He Was to be Euthanized

By Amy Sacks New York Daily News

Credit: Facebook

Dog Missing After Hurricane Sandy Found at Shelter Day Before He Was to be Euthanized

January 6, 2013 Updated Jan 6, 2013 at 2:29 PM PDT

Buster was found just in the nick of time.

The handsome ridgeback/shepherd mix had been missing for nearly two weeks when Christine O’Donovan spotted her lost pup posted on the Animal Care & Control shelter’s nightly euthanasia list on Dec. 13. He was slated to be put down the next morning.

“I looked at the photo and knew it was him,” said O’Donovan, 42, whose frightened dog bolted two weeks earlier while workers were assessing the damage wreaked by Hurricane Sandy on her Belle Harbor, Queens, home.

For weeks, O’Donovan and her five kids, ages 2 to 12, had been scouring their devastated neighborhood. Without electricity or an Internet connection she could not access the AC&C lost and found database or get to the shelter to look for Buster.

“I tried calling but nobody answers the phone,” she said.

Kim Fraser, who runs the rescue group Sasha’s Mission, texted O’Donovan after recognizing Buster on the nightly list posted on Facebook by the group Urgent Part 2.

The healthy, 63-pound mutt was listed as a stray pit bull mix with a medical condition of “kennel cough.”

O’Donovan immediately placed Buster on hold using the shelter’s automated telephone system.

She arrived at the shelter the next morning with kids in tow and waited in the lobby for Buster.

“He was so happy to see my kids and they were so happy to see him,” said O’Donovan, who had rescued Buster months earlier , after finding the puppy tied to a pole on Queens Blvd.

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