Last October, as Hurricane Milton threatened Florida, a white bull terrier with dark ears was abandoned off the side of the road along Interstate 75 near Tampa. It was raining and the water was rising. Florida Highway Patrol trooper Orlando Morales was on patrol when he got the call about the dog and checked it out. To his surprise, he found the dog, gently calmed him and eventually coaxed him back to the safety of his police car.
Nearly a year later, the dog, named Trooper of course, has found a new home with a couple in Parkland, Florida. When I heard about the rescue and the dog finding a new home, I pitched a story and it was finally published a few days ago at The New York Times where I work. With everything going on in the world today with breaking and often depressing and tragic news (which I write a lot about,) I thought this was an uplifting story and it has to do with something I am very fond of -- dogs! When I told my friends that I was working on a longer story, one said "I thought this was going to be something else but this is so YOU!" Yes, a hurricane + Florida + dog + rescue = a Johnny Diaz story. :)
You can read the story by visiting this link.
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| Photo courtesy of Frank Spina, Trooper's new daddy |
The story also was published in the Sunday New York Times. This is one of my all-time favorite stories to report and write.
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