NEAR TAMPA, Fla. (WSVN) — A South Florida dog owner is speaking out after her dog was rescued in the relief efforts following Hurricane Milton.
The heartwarming reunion took place Thursday morning, thanks to the members of the towing company from all the way across the country.
The impending devastation of Hurricane Milton led hundreds of residents living along Florida’s Gulf Coast to evacuate to South Florida. The dog, named Angel, went missing at around 5 p.m. on Wednesday while his owners were preparing to evacuate.
Having packed their horses and dogs, Angel somehow jumped out of the family’s car during the drive. Marina Taylor did not notice until arriving at her son’s home in Brandon, located just 10 miles north of her own home in Riverview.
Marina and her family went looking for her pet for a few hours, until it became too dangerous to continue the search.
“We had all my dogs back there, and we left the window open so they would get air,” said Marina. “When I got to my destination, instead of having eight dogs, I only had seven, and Angel was missing.”
Thursday morning, Marina received a call from Jason Frias, the owner of South Coast Towing. He told her he found Angel in Riverview on the side of the highway.
Frias said they found the do while moving to a new location to help more people.
“We were going to head to Tampa to see how it was,” said Jason. “As we were taking [Interstate] 75 North, there on exit, we see a dog on the exit. And the cars were flying around there; we found it was dangerous.”
Crew members from the Massachusetts-based towing company have been assisting in the disaster relief efforts since last week. When they came across the dog, they were able to get him to a grassy area before they were able to secure him in their truck. They were quickly able to get him to safety and eventually find his family.
“All night long we were just so upset because our Angel was out in the storm,” said Marina. “I’m sure he was petrified.”
Members of Jason’s crew took to Facebook to find Angel’s family had posted on the Facebook Page Lost and Found Pets of Hillsborough County. Having located Marina, Jason and his crew went to take Angel, but of course, with Hurricane Milton taking many trees down, the road to Marina would be blocked. Crew members had to cut down and remove branches to get to the owner’s home.
Though Angel was confused at first, Marina said she is back to normal and very happy.
Each member of the team was honored by local officers for their work in rescuing the dog.
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