“My name is Joey. I am looking for a home. Please take care of me!!” The handwritten plea was on a note attached to a Pointer mix who’d been tied to a light post March 1 in a San Pedro, Calif., park.
Lisa Snyder, who, with her three rescue cats, had been living in her van in the parking lot of Point Fermin Park, decided to heed the note and take care of Joey. She grabbed hold of his leash after he broke free from the light post.
“He was scared,” Snyder told CBS Los Angeles. “He was snapping. And growling. And trying to get away from people. He was just scared.”
Since her cats are not dog friendly and she couldn’t keep Joey, Snyder walked him around the park, trying to find someone who would give him a home. She found no takers.
Snyder decided to take Joey to the nearest animal shelter. It was cold and raining, and Snyder has to use a cane, but she managed to walk Joey to the Harbor Animal Care Center, three miles away.
“I got to thinking, If I had left him out here with all that wind coming off the bluff and all that pouring rain and no shelter over there at all, he would have ended up sick, maybe dead,” she told CBS Los Angeles.
When Lorna Lee Locke Salem heard about Snyder’s good deed, she started a gofundme.com campaign to raise money to pay for repairs to Snyder’s van.
“She opened her heart. Let’s open ours and help her,” Salem wrote.
The initial goal was $500. After Snyder’s story made the news, contributions reached a grand total of $3,590.
Rami Packer, owner of Butch’s Auto Repair in San Pedro, heard about Snyder and offered to repair the good Samaritan’s van.
There’s good news for Joey, as well. After his 10-day holding period ended, Barbie Icaza of Forte Animal Rescue sprang him from the shelter.
“He has had his first bath and is settling into his foster home,” Forte Animal Rescue wrote on its Facebook page Sunday.
Hopefully Joey will be in a new forever home — with extra emphasis on forever — very soon.
“I hope he finds a good family. A forever home. He needs one. He deserves one. He’s a good dog,” Snyder told CBS Los Angeles.
“Our pass it forward has gone full circle,” Salem wrote in an update today on the gofundme.com page. “Lisa Synder helped Joey in his time of need. Rami of Butch’s Auto Repair helped Lisa with her failing van. Barbie of Forte Animal Rescue took Joey to make certain he gets a forever home.
“And they all lived happily.”
Photos via gofundme.com