Christine O’Donovan’s dog Buster is back and she and her children couldn’t be happier to have the year old Ridgeback/Shepherd mix home.
Hurricane Sandy wrecked O’Donovan’s house in Belle Harbor, Queens.
Buster was spooked and took off when work crews assessed the damage in mid- November.
O’Donovan said she and her children spent a month looking all over their neighborhood and beyond.
Then late on December 12 O’Donovan’s friend Kim Frazier was searching the Animal Care and Control website and spotted a picture of Buster. She was horrified to see he was due to be euthanized in the morning at their shelter in Brooklyn .
And the clock was ticking.
“By this time it was maybe 10 o’clock, 10:30 at night and there is now no way to reach the shelter, there is no direct line once they close they close, you cant go there,” Frazier said.
Frazier, who runs the animal rescue group Sasha’s Mission, messaged the shelter over the internet to spare the dog, but she didn’t know if they would see it. Next, she texted O'Donovan to get there as soon as possible. .
The next morning O’Donovan came went to the shelter to pick up Buster. If she hadn’t he would have been put to sleep.
O’Donovan said she cried when she got the dog back, and said she’s going to do all she can to make sure he doesn’t run away again.