An injured puppy has found her new home with the New York firefighter who rescued her.
On April 27, the Buffalo Fire Department shared a post on Facebook recounting the story of Auburn the puppy, who was recently dropped off at the local fire station, Engine 19.
According to a post from the Buffalo Fire Department’s Helmets & Hose Wagons Facebook page, Auburn was brought to the fire station by two teenagers, who said they saw the pup get hit by a car. Several of the Engine’s firefighters — including Anthony Pulvino — immediately sprung into action and started caring for the canine, who had an injured leg.
“I opened the door and saw the dog and told them to bring it inside,” Pulvino told Fox News Digital. “Then, I called my lieutenant and the other guys in my crew.”
“She did have a lot of road rash, so we treated her, kind of cleaned up her cuts,” the firefighter said.
The firefighting crew then decided that Auburn’s leg was severely injured enough to require medical assistance, so they placed the pup in a box with a pillow and took her to Orchard Park Veterinary Medical Center, per local station WGRZ.
“One of her rear legs was a little messed up, but she didn’t seem [to be] in too much pain,” Pulvino told Fox.
The firefighter, who said he had been working in the field for over two years, felt an immediate connection to the puppy and left his contact information with the vet.
“I left my phone number and said if nobody claims her, I’d love to take her,” Pulvino said, per Fox. “I had told the guys, ‘I really want a puppy.’ And they said, ‘Yeah, you could bring her to the house any time.'”
The Helmets & Hose Wagons page shared an update on Auburn about a week after she was brought into the station, writing that she had undergone an amputation.
“But the good news is she’s going to be fine and live a normal life,” the page wrote alongside two photos of the pup recuperating comfortably. “[Even] better she’s going to her forever home very shortly.”
That forever home, it turned out, was with Pulvino.
“She just kind of fell right into my hands,” he told Fox. Auburn’s hero added that the puppy was “doing great.”
“You would not even know she has three legs,” Pulvino said. “I brought her to Knox Farms the other day, and she was sprinting around faster than some of the four-legged dogs there.”
Auburn has even become somewhat of a local celebrity — and the two teenagers who brought her to the station have come by to say hello to her.
In the department’s Facebook post, Pulvino shared that he had named the dog after the location of a recent fire the Engine 19 team responded to.
“[Firefighter] Pulvino named her Auburn because they had a first in fire on Auburn and West shortly after she arrived at the fire house,” the post shared. “She is now living her best life with FF Pulvino taking long walks, jumping around and loving her new home.”
