Posted on 04/17/2009 9:34:04 AM PDT by meandog
He's a little ball of fire" says U.S. Customs officer J.J. Trevino of Popsicle (Receiving a significant Seizure medal in March)
During an arrest two years ago, Buffalo policeman Ron Clark, Jr. opened an abandoned freezer on a known drug dealer's back porch and found a bulging black garbage bag. "I poked my flashlight at it," he recalls, "and it started moving. My worst fear was that it was a baby." In fact, it was a puppy, a pit bull who would be known as Popsicle and -- in a lovely ironic twist-- would gain fame for sniffing out the kind of bad guy that nearly killed him.
One year ago, Popsicle helped the feds seize 3,075 pounds of cocaine from a pineapple-laden truck at the Mexican border-the biggest drug bust ever at the Hidalgo, Texas, port of entry. "It's astounding the obstacles this dog has overcome," says US Customs Service Commissioner Raymond W. Kelley.
The Pitbull Puppy was skin and bones when he arrived at the Animal Hospital. When Officer Clark found the wounded, blood-caked animal who had apparently been used in pit bull fights, he was undernourished, hypothermic and near death.
"He was in bad shape, but I was drawn to him," says SPCA adoption counselor Shannon Willie, who name the pup Popsicle. Alas, people who visited the shelter looking to adopt a puppy were put off by his breed's reputation. They would take one look at the pit bull and walk away.
When Popsicle regained his strength, the shelter contacted US Customs canine-enforcement officer Sally Barr. It was a long shot, but maybe he would qualify for the dog training school in Front Royal, VA.
Of 500 dogs Barr has tested in the last three years, only 4 have made the cut. "You want a dog that plays a terrific tug-of-war," says Barr. Popsicle did, and in February 1998 he graduated at the top of his class and became a celebrated alumnus two months later by detecting the record contraband cache under a tractor-trailer.
"You have to imagine him," says US Customs canine handler J.J. Trevino ,"on his hind legs, barking, trying to reach up to the bottom of the truck."
Back in Buffalo, where the bad guy eventually got off with probation for animal cruelty, Ron Clark remains awed by Popsicle's comeback. "I still don't know why I opened that refrigerator," says Clark. "But it feel like it was meant to be."
(((ping)))
Puppies aren’t born bad, it takes a fool to make them that way!
Puppies aren’t born bad, it takes a fool to make them that way!
you are so right, they grow into what they have been taught, love or hate.....
Good doggie! The druggies...sic em.
Rescue pitbull ping!
THIS is all he got - even with evidence of him using this little guy as fighting bait - starving him & stuffing him in a garbage bag to die!!!
A great story though.
Thanks, what a cool story!
Woof!
Does anyone think this idiot is reformed and won't be abusing and fighting more dogs? This is the problem!! This is what people should be fighting against; not the dogs.
They can do more than eat remote controls!
Even cooler name.
I can't imagine why people do some of the things they do to animals....just sick.
Day 6 now for our 10 wk old Fox Terrier.
After I put my lady Pit down (17 yrs old!), I swore I'd never have another dog. It is great to have a puppy running around here again!
11 yr old daughters can be quite convincing. :)
He looks pretty proud of himself :-) Handsome dog!
Pit bull saves Holland woman from abductor
HOLLAND, Mich. (WZZM)- A Holland woman has an unlikely hero to thank after breaking up a domestic fight.
The 32-year-old’s estranged husband beat her and attempted to abduct her from her safe house in Holland.
The plan was foiled thanks to a dog which usually gets a bad rap.
The fight between Steven Schumacher, 33, and his wife was very public. Witnesses say he beat and dragged his wife across the street, attempting to get her into his vehicle.
But the fact the fight was public may have helped. That’s how Blitz saw the events unfolding from his window, and ‘blitzed’ to the rescue.
Judging by his barking through the window, we’re presuming Blitz is no fan of cameras.
Blitz is a two-year-old, hundred and something pound pit bull; yes, the kind many fear.
“He’ll protect us when we need it,” says his owner. “But he’s a great house pet, he’s great with my kids, he’s wonderful.”
Due to the nature of this tale Blitz’s owner does not want to be known. She says close to 11:00p.m. Wednesday she heard screams for help.
“It’s still surreal,” she says. “I haven’t even slept yet, (I’m) still kind of shaken about what could have happened to her.”
She saw Schumacher beating and dragging his estranged wife. “(I was) scared of what could have happened to her, because he was close to getting her in his car.”
Blitz saw it too.
“He about knocked me out of the door to get to them. I heard her screaming, ‘help me’, repeatedly and I came out my front door and my dog spilled past me and went and scared him a little bit.”
She says he never bit anyone, but scared Schumacher just enough that he loosened his grip on his wife, who then ran inside Blitz’s home and waited for police.
“He was still in the area, I believe in the front yard of the residence,” says Captain Rick Walters of the Holland Police Department. “He was taken into custody without incident.”
Walters isn’t sure how long the couple had been separated, but says they were living apart.
“He went to that residence, broke into that residence and then confronted her and assaulted her in that residence,” says Walters.
What Schumacher’s intentions were are still not known.
Police say they did find a knife in Schumacher’s pocket but do not think it was used during the attack.
What is known though is the dog many fear, saw fear, and became a hero.
What a heartwarming story. Thanks!
This is a great story, but it is not from 2 years ago - as in, 2007. I saw it 1st on TV many years ago. As article states, at least 1998. Wonder if Popsicle is even alive now?
Yes and no. This dog had the very worst of it in the very beginning - yet he was an exemplary dog. Disproves the belief that it’s all due to “environment”. The dog had to be decent at heart.
Probably not but it doesn't matter to me...I look for positive pitbull stories to post to balance the negative and orchestrated effort by media and some pitbull-haters here as a springboard for their real design (breed elimination) and I don't care how old the articles happen to be.
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