Tara Evans, Executive Producer
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Tara Evans, Executive Producer
SANFORD, Fla. – When Trooper Steve goes on patrol, you never know what he’ll find on the roads.
Whether it’s a distracted driver, a fender bender happening right in front of Results-1 or being able to back up the observations of other drivers, it’s always an adventure.
Enter Riley. You may remember back on August 17 that Trooper Steve started his live shot on News 6 at Nine with a special guest in his backseat.
It was this sweet little pup (see below) that he found in the road in Seminole County.
Being the dog lover Trooper Steve is, he decided o take care of her. After the newscast, he did what’s always a good idea when you find a lost pup — he took her to Seminole County Animal Services.
[STORY CONTINUES BELOW PHOTOS THROUGHOUT STORY]
The reason this is a good idea is because if she had belonged to someone, the shelter (or a local vet’s office) is able to scan a lost dog for a microchip to see if they can find the owner.
In this case, she was not chipped, so the shelter was able to place her on a stray hold. A county shelter is the typical place someone would look to see if their lost animal was picked up, so they hold the animal for a certain amount of days to see if someone will claim the animal.
Plus, as was necessary in her case, she had a case of kennel cough and her skin needed some attention, so she was able to get the vet care she needed.
No one stepped forward to claim her, so she went up for adoption on September 11.
And she was really lucky, because she was adopted by Arianna Lewis the very next morning.
Lewis said she and her boyfriend had been talking about adopting a dog, and she was up at 2 a.m. searching the Seminole County Animals Services website. She saw the sweet pup, got excited, and woke her boyfriend up at 9 a.m. to hurry out and adopt her.
Now, she’s named Riley, and we couldn’t be happier about the beautiful new home with two loving parents she now has. It’s their first dog together and they said they’re in love with her.
Trooper Steve went to visit and reunite with Riley and you can see, her coat and skin are doing much better, she’s very sweet and loving.
As Steve was leaving, Riley’s new dad told him the dog is scared to walk down the stairs– but we think all she needed was her hero to help her, because all of the sudden, she followed Steve down the stairs, no problem.
Good luck to Riley and her new family!
While Riley’s story has a happy ending, not all shelter pups’ stories do — or at least not as quickly as hers did.
This is Smokey.
Smokey is about 4 years old, and he’s been at Seminole County Animal Services for almost a year.
Initially, he wasn’t up for adoption because he was part of an animal cruelty investigation. Smokey was found emaciated and tied up in a backyard.
Shelter workers and volunteers have been working for months to get him back to health and ready to be loved properly by a new family.
He’s been up for adoption for two months and still nothing.
Bree Burkett, an adoption coordinator at Seminole County Animal Services, said Smokey is a sweet boy, which was obvious when Trooper Steve went to meet him.
He takes treats very gently, he loves to be pet and he definitely does that big dog lean on his people.
Burkett said Smokey would probably do best as the only dog in the home because as he was kept tied outside, he doesn’t really know how to socialize and be with other dogs. Still, besides a brief 15-second zoomie session, Smokey is pretty calm and we suspect he’d be very happy to lounge on a couch beside his person.
Smokey is heartworm positive, but all that means is he will have to take it easy and not get too rambunctious when he first goes to his new home. His heartworm treatment is included in his adoption fee, so it’s at no cost to his new owners. He may just need to visit the shelter once or twice to get that medicine.
If you’d like to get results for Smokey and give him all the love he’s missed out on and deserved, you can contact the shelter about him here. His shelter ID number is A426600.
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Tara Evans is an executive producer and has been with News 6 since January 2013. She currently spearheads News 6 at Nine and specializes in stories with messages of inspiration, hope and that make a difference for people — with a few hard-hitting investigations thrown in from time to time.
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