Smokey
Smokey was wandering the streets of Fernandina Beach when a very nice man with 2 boys fund him. They tried in vain to find his family until one day the boys said," Dad can we just keep him?" The father explained that they lived in an apartment that did not allow dogs but they would continue to hide him and look for his home.
The manager of the apartment complex caught them and brought Smokey to us. He came in without the dog at first and posed as an adopter. When he finally did bring Smokey to us he said that he had visited a number of shelters until he found the best one for their Smokey. He thought if anyone could find a home for Smokey, it would be us.
Smokey would not even come out of his cage for the first two weeks. He just would look out at you with those sad eyes. We tried everything. Time was the answer. He gradually started to trust us and before you knew it he was giving all the adopters that "look."
Rhodes Furniture was having an adoption day on Memorial Day. At first we were not going to drive to Orange Park on a holiday since we thought no potential adoptive families would show up. When the Hernandez family came up Smokey was the first dog that they saw and I think he picked them. They had just arrived when they saw Smokey and felt they should look at all the dogs up for adoption, so I encouraged them to walk around with Smokey and look at all the other dogs. If they found one that would be a better match for their family, they could simply walk Smokey back to me.
After 30 minutes, the family returned, and told me that Smokey's new name was "Smokey Hernandez." Smokey had found his new home!
Sparky Weitzel
NHS Director
NHS Dog pArk