It may sound a bit vaudevillian, but a puppy tied to tracks in California got a last-minute reprieve after a train’s engineer spotted the distressed doggie.
The puppy tied to the tracks was spotted near Mecca, California, and the situation is one that somehow actually manages to be worse than it sounds in the headline — canine lovers, beware of imminent sad feelings.
It was April 2 when Banjo, the puppy tied to tracks in California, was spotted by the engineer after the Union Pacific employee observed an older man walking away from the desert railway.
Banjo was really just a pup when he had his brush with near certain death, and only by merit of being sighted in time did the doggie make it. The 10-month-old poodle and terrier mix was about to get splatted when the engineer threw an emergency brake and saved his life, just in time.
Union Pacific special agent Sal Pina responded to the incident, untied the puppy tied to the tracks, and questioned the 78-year-old owner of the dog. The man, who seemed a bit confused and unaware of the gravity of the crime against Banjo, “said his family didn’t want the dog and didn’t know what to do.”
Agent Pina took the man to a field office and questioned him, later commenting the puppy tied to the tracks was “probably one of the worst things” he’d seen, adding “I’ve never seen something like this.”
Pina held the man but animal cruelty charges won’t be levied as it is believed the dog’s owner may have been senile and unable to understand what he had done.
While the puppy tied to the tracks was saved, however, he’s not in the clear — Banjo, named after his close-call for a train signal — is currently in the custody of Riverside County Animal Services and is in need of a forever home.