Abandoned and living in a cardboard box, this dog has one Miami neighborhood to thank for rescuing him.
"We have a neighborhood blog and everybody started talking about it, so we went out there and we tried to figure out like, what next steps we could do because it was pretty cold and ... it looked like something was wrong with him," says Julian Rovito, one of the neighbors who helped rescue the dog.
For days, they tried to get him to leave the box, but…
"He was waiting for somebody to come back, that's what it was, " says Rovito.
Eventually, they were able to get him into a local animal clinic. They also contacted an animal rescue organization.
Animal Cruelty Investigator with Animal Recovery Mission Margot Ryan says "He [Julian] told me how many people in the community are giving food and water and making sure he's safe. I haven’t seen many communities step up like that before."
And it’s not the first time.
"Since we’re kind of close to Overtown we get a lot of bait dogs, we see just dogs just dumped, just walking around. And sometimes they form packs," Rovito said.
But this dog, who they’ve named Joey, has certainly stirred up the most attention. Especially, after Julian posted a GoFundMe page that raised over $3,000.
"We got donations from Australia, from UK, from Japan. I had to actually shut it down because we didn't, you know, we didn’t want anymore money to come in, his treatment is all covered, everything's covered and it just started with a picture, that's all it did, and it's just the power of social media I guess," says Rovito.
If you’re interested in adopting Joey, the neighbors are asking that you email joeyadoption@gmail.com. Rovito and Ryan say Joey is about four or five years old.
There’s also one more dog that they’ve been trying to find a home for. Scout (pictured below) is a kennel mate of Joey’s. She was dropped off at the clinic four months ago by her owners who never came back.
Rovito and Ryan try to walk and play with Scout each time they visit Joey, which is usually daily. But Scout is also looking for a forever home! Scout is about two-years-old. If you're interested in learning more about her and/or adopting her, Rovito asks that you email the same address listed above.
Scout, 2-years-old, was left at the animal clinic four months ago and her owners never came back.
