February 22, 2014
Soldier, a 2-year-old Pit Bull found wandering in a South Carolina neighborhood with a mysterious black and white photo tucked into his collar has found a forever family after no one stepped forward to claim the dog.
The 2-year-old Pit Bull arrived at the shelter in South Carolina with an old, battered photo of a man tucked away in his collar. The photo captured the imaginations of supporters of Greenville County Animal Care and animal lovers around the world, with many of them trying to solve the mystery. But no one identified the dog or the man in the photo after a month of looking.
Susan Bufano or Greenville County Animal Care Services speculated about the photo: “It’s bizarre…It didn’t get there accidentally. Somebody had to really work hard to get that photo in there.”
While many people’s attention was focused on solving the mystery of the photo, the shelter concentrated on finding Soldier a home. They got several dozen applications and ended up selecting Julie Hensley from Virginia. Hensley is an attorney and used to rescue and train pit bulls, and when she met Soldier it was love at first sight.
“When Julie came about, it seemed like the perfect fit,” said Susan Bufano, media relations coordinator at the shelter. “I wanted someone that was interested beyond seeing Soldier’s story on TV, beyond just his notoriety. And Julie had been a pit bull rescuer. She just had the perfect vet reference and she had trained and worked at a shelter, so she was just really the perfect match.”
Julie has a farm with lots of animals and Soldier is settling in really well. As for Soldier’s past, Julie has her own theory.
“People love a mystery and the shame here is we’re probably not going to get the answers we’re looking for,” she explained. “But I’ve got most of the answers. He was loved. He developed a great bond with someone, but something happened. Some tragedy. Someone died, or he got away from them and he couldn’t’ find them, there was some tragic separation, and then he was fortunate to be found by the shelter in Greenville, [which was] willing to go the extra mile to give a plain old pit bull a forever home.”
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