Some South Florida firefighters are being hailed as heroes for a different kind of rescue, after they found a dog left tied up to a flagpole outside their station and gave him a second chance at life. What started as any other Saturday morning for Fort Lauderdale firefighters quickly turned into a search for a home. Early in the day and without a knock on the door, Fort Lauderdale Fire Station Battalion Chief Kimberly Wells said, a 1-year-old dog was abandoned in front of their station. “Before our crew change at our station, one of our captains arrived at work and found said pup that we have since named Peanut. We found Peanut tied to a flagpole, well, to be abandoned, with a bowl of water left with them.” Unfortunately, Wells said, this is something that happens more often than one would think. “We took Peanut in and gave him a bath and cleaned him up, and then what we do, what we normally do, we reached out to all of the local shelters, all of the dog rescues,” she said, “and unfortunately, nobody is accepting dogs at this particular time ’cause they’re all full.” With no one able to take Peanut in, the fire crew tried a different approach. They quickly got results. “We had our public information officer put it out on our social media, seeing if we couldn’t do our due diligence and help find Peanut a home,” said Wells, “and a gentleman reached out to us and went to one of our stations.” Wells said the man who reached out is a retired veteran who lost his senior dog earlier this year. “We wanted to make sure that [Peanut] was not going to be in any perilous situation, so we went by and vetted the house and made sure everything was on the up and up,” said Wells, “and Peanut has since been adopted and has found a very good home.” In just the span of a few hours, Peanut went from being tied to a flagpole to a new chance at life with a loving owner. “All things considered, in this day and age, with the amount of abandoned dogs that are out there, to find a home, and a good home at that, is very fortunate,” said Wells. While Peanut’s story had a happy ending, Wells urges people not to think of the fire station as a place to abandon a dog. How Peanut was abandoned, she said, was a worst-case scenario. ...read more read less