NORTH MIAMI BEACH, FL (WSVN/CNN) – Thanks to a South Florida attorney, a young Dalmatian traveled to the U.S. on Christmas Eve, making his rescue a true Christmas miracle.
Lucky, a 10-month-old Dalmatian, was abandoned and abused in far Eastern Russia. A photo shows him chained up to a barrel in freezing weather.
So, when attorney Evelina Libhen found out about Lucky through Facebook, she knew she had to do something.
“He’s truly lucky because I’m not on Facebook too often, and I was just browsing that day and saw a post with a picture of that dog, and I made a connection,” Libhen said.
Lucky was rescued by local volunteers, but they had no way of finding him a home.
“The people that had him in Russia were at first very afraid of sending him so far, and then figuring out the logistics was a major challenge because he was literally at the other end of the globe,” Libhen said.
There Lucky was, stranded in Russia on the border with China, with Libhen asking all her contacts in Russia and Florida to help her rescue the young dog.
“This is a creature that cannot defend itself, and who, if not us?” Libhen said.
Finally, on Christmas Eve, Lucky made the 11,000-mile journey from the cold of Russia to the warmth of South Florida. Cell phone video shows the canine resting in his carrier.
Libhen coordinated with Pati Dane, who runs Dalmatian Rescue in North Miami Beach, and Dane found Lucky a home.
“He has a home with a previous adopter of ours that we’ve known since ’96, and he’s going to have an awesome home on a 20-acre ranch in New Mexico,” Dane said.
Libhen and Dane say Lucky’s rescue is nothing short of a miracle.
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