Firefighter Finds Missing Manhattan Dog On Randalls Island

Oleh Mohammad Hady Setiawan

Thursday 29 January 2015

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Burt the whippet (Via FDNY)

At least one heartwarming Bart's People story has emerged from the Blizzard Bust of 2015: A whippet named Burt, who was lost for five months, was found on Monday by an FDNY lieutenant at the Fire Academy on Randalls Island. Lt. Dave Kelly had noticed him over the past three weeks, noting that whippets "are skinny anyway, but this dog was really skinny. I’d try to feed him to try to capture him, but he would just run away." So with the storm bearing down, he set a trap to make sure that Burt was safe.

FDNY Lt. Dave Kelly (FDNY)

According to the FDNY, "Lt. Kelly said he has seen the dog only at night, rummaging through garbage cans at the Academy."

When he heard about the forecasted snowstorm, Lt. Kelly said he began to worry, “I figured it wasn’t a good outlook for the dog - I didn’t know what would happen to him.” So he set up a cage with food near where he had been feeding the dog and attached a rope to it. He sat in a van about 40 feet from the cage, and when the dog began to eat, Lt. Kelly pulled the cage shut with the rope.
He said he searched Google for lost Whippet dogs in New York City, and came across a page talking about “Burt.” The dog was lost from the family’s apartment in Harlem on Aug. 20, 2014, when he was just 9-months-old, and had since been spotted in Morningside Park.

Kelly contacted Burt's owner, Lauren Piccolo, in case the dog was in fact Burt. She wrote on Facebook on Monday night, "After five months, and of course in the middle of a mega snow storm, I get a call from a really nice fireman who has seen a whippet, nightly for 2 - 3 weeks, near the FDNY training facility on Randall's Island. The fireman has been feeding this dog, but only from a distance because if he gets to close the dog runs - really fast. Sound like my guy? Yup. I can't believe you are still out there, Burt!!!!!!!!!! ‪#‎BringBurtHome"‬ And it was! Piccolo later said, "I am tremendously grateful for the efforts of the FDNY to recover Burt. While Burt is a resilient dog, I don’t think he would have survived such a fierce storm. The FDNY’s efforts were incredible and timely!"
The NY Times points out, "How and when Burt made his way from Ms. Piccolo’s apartment on West 120th Street to the sprawling baseball fields and municipal facilities of Randalls Island was not immediately clear. There is a pedestrian bridge linking the island to the East Side of Manhattan around 103rd Street, and there are pedestrian paths off the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, which towers over the island."
Burt is expected to recover. He's reportedly been enjoying the couch.

Tag : INFORMASI