{"id":210108,"date":"2026-03-28T23:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T23:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/210108\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T23:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T23:52:07","slug":"abandoned-dog-left-tied-to-pole-at-florida-gas-station-gets-second-chance-after-man-felt-a-calling-to-save-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/210108\/","title":{"rendered":"Abandoned Dog, Left Tied to Pole at Florida Gas Station, Gets Second Chance After Man Felt a Calling to Save Him"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">An abandoned dog in Florida just found a new forever family<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The black-and-white Dalmatian-pointer mix was left tied to a pole outside a gas station in Pembroke Park<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Michael Puente said he and his girlfriend saw a viral video of the dog and instantly knew they were meant to save the pooch<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A dog <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/husky-found-with-skull-fracture-after-dog-left-tied-to-pole-11928562\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:tied to a pole;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;tied to a pole&quot;}\" class=\"link \">tied to a pole<\/a> and abandoned outside a gas station in Florida just got a second chance at a forever home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=isbOpJX40GE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:viral video;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;viral video&quot;}\" class=\"link \">viral video<\/a>, a black-and-white Dalmatian-pointer mix was spotted, struggling and alone, tied up outside a gas station in Pembroke Park. Concerned citizens ultimately called police, who took the dog to a shelter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Michael Puente said he and his girlfriend saw the viral video and instantly felt like they were meant to find and help out the pooch, according to local news outlet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2026\/03\/22\/abandoned-dog-tied-to-pole-gets-second-chance-with-new-owner\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:WPLG 10;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;WPLG 10&quot;}\" class=\"link \">WPLG 10<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I feel like it was more like a call,&#8221; he said of the moment he watched the dog in the footage. &#8220;And I answered.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Puente told the outlet that he visited the gas station where the dog had been tied up and even checked with police, but he was initially unable to locate the canine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">However, he soon learned that the dog was taken to Broward County Animal Care, a shelter for dogs and cats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI kept deciding I\u2019m going to keep going and I want to meet him,\u201d he told WPLG 10.\u00a0\u201cI [wanted] to see what I can do, and now I finally found him, met him and instantly I was like, \u2018He\u2019s mine.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Puente filled out all of the <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/animal-shelter-hosts-event-for-dogs-to-pick-their-owner-exclusive-11928483\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:necessary adoption papers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;necessary adoption papers&quot;}\" class=\"link \">necessary adoption papers<\/a> and within a few days was approved to move forward with adoption.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He said he renamed the dog Zenki (the shelter had been calling him Scooter).<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cZenki is essentially a first gen in Japanese culture for cars,\u201d Puente explained. \u201cHe is my first generation dog. He\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/la-officials-remove-700-dogs-and-cats-from-a-single-property-in-one-the-largest-animal-rescues-operations-in-the-u-s-11931209\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:my first rescue;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;my first rescue&quot;}\" class=\"link \">my first rescue<\/a>, my first pet, so I decided to name him Zenki.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Puente added that he already feels as though he and Zenki have bonded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for<a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/people-news-daily-newsletter-sign-up-8692701\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:PEOPLE&#039;s free daily newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;PEOPLE&#039;&quot;}\" class=\"link \">PEOPLE&#8217;s free daily newsletter<\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cHe\u2019s with me. He\u2019s throwing his back on me. I think he feels the security. I think he feels safe. Dogs can tell a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThere are people out there. You don\u2019t have to leave a dog tied to a pole,\u201d Puente added while speaking to WPLG 10.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Read the original article on <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/florida-man-adopts-dog-who-was-tied-to-pole-gas-station-viral-video-11932629\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:People;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;People&quot;}\" class=\"link \">People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW An abandoned dog in Florida just found a new forever family The black-and-white Dalmatian-pointer mix&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,1288,96277,55721,96278],"class_list":{"0":"post-210108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-headlines","10":"tag-florida-news","11":"tag-gas-station","12":"tag-pembroke-park","13":"tag-viral-video","14":"tag-zenki"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}