Neighbors rescued dog who lost his family in Helene. Then came a heartwarming adoption
A dog was rescued after Hurricane Helene ravaged his home — then came more good news.
The Triangle Beagle Rescue of North Carolina said the friendly pup, who had lost his family in the storm, has been adopted.
“I’m so thrilled for Moose,” Tara Lynn, the dog’s former foster mom, told McClatchy News in a Nov. 11 email. “He has two beagle siblings, a boy and a girl, and I’ve already seen lots of videos of them being able to play in the fenced backyard.”
The heartwarming adoption came more than a month after Hurricane Helene, which unleashed catastrophic flooding and wind damage on parts of mountainous Western North Carolina.
“Moose’s world was turned upside down when Hurricane Helene devastated his home in Lake Lure, NC, taking his family and leaving him to fend for himself,” the rescue wrote Oct. 16 on Facebook.
As he wandered around, Moose depended on the “kindness of strangers.” Then wild dogs attacked him, prompting neighbors to get him medical attention even as they faced their own post-Helene challenges, McClatchy News reported.
Moose eventually landed at the Raleigh-area rescue. The dog — who “had a deep cut behind his ear and on his leg” — received stitches and started the recovery process, his foster mom said in October.
“His body may have scars, but his spirit remains strong,” rescuers wrote at the time.
Then, about a month after he arrived in foster care, the rescue in a Facebook post shared the emotional news that Moose got new owners who are accustomed to caring for beagles. The family also lives in the mountains, where he had once lived.
Lynn called the adoption “bittersweet” but felt Moose’s new family was the right fit. She said her young son struggled to say goodbye, and her dog won’t have his playmate anymore.
“My heart really is overjoyed more than sad,” Lynn wrote. “We all miss him, but feel like God allowed us to nurse him back to health and be his safe place right when he needed it.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2024 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Neighbors rescued dog who lost his family in Helene. Then came a heartwarming adoption."
