This is the story of a wonderful pit bull named Bunker. Bunker was one of the many casualties of Hurricane Katrina like many, many other animals. After the storm, Bunker made his way to shelter on a golf course in an upscale area in the West Bank of New Orleans. He was living on the 9th hole when the residents of the community decided to get help in getting him removed. That is when Best Friends Animal Society was called in to help. With the assistance of a trapper they were able to catch Bunker with a tranquilizer gun. Up to that point, he had kept his distance from people and kept outsmarting anyone that tried to get too close.
After being rescued, Best Friends and another organization attempted to find Bunker’s owners but had no luck. He spent the next couple years in a shelter in Texas that eventually ran put of funds and had to be shut down. That is when Best Friends stepped in again and took Bunker along with many other dogs. One Bunker made it to “Dog Town,” Jeff Popowich was willing to foster him.
I met Bunker in the lobby of the Dog Town clinic when Jeff was walking him out from his office one morning. I was in the process of filing out paperwork to potentially adopt a dog when I saw this dignified, powerful dog walking toward me. I jokingly asked if he was up for adoption and the next thing I know Bunker came to me and sat on my foot and just looked up at me with his big brown eyes. That was the end of story- Bunker was coming home with me!
Since Bunker was still very anxious around thunderstorms (and there was no way of knowing just what he experienced in the hurricane), we made the decision not to try to fly Bunker back to Florida since the noise in the cargo hold might cause undue stress. Jeff stepped up to the plate and agreed to meet me halfway to pick Bunker up, so a few weeks after we met, we took the long journey from Florida to Dallas, TX to meet with Jeff and Bunker.
After a long ride home, I introduced Bunker to the rest of the pack: Durango (Chihuahua), Abby (Greyhound-Beagle mix), and Flash (Black Lab). The pack instantly accepted Bunker as one of their own…
Bunker’s first few weeks were tough because of the afternoon thunderstorms in Florida. On two occasions, he tried to chew his way out of the house by eating through the drywall by the windows. From that point on, I had to crate him every day while I was at work.
Now, over a year later, we have been working on Bunker’s anxiety and he no longer has to stay in his crate at all. He still gets anxious with the bigger storms, but he is so much better than he was in the past. In fact, I was told by other staff members at Best Friends that Bunker had been known to have eaten through multiple plastic crates when there were storms. He often ended up in bed next to someone since he would constantly try to chew his way out to escape a storm….
Bunker is currently enjoying wrestling around with our foster dog, Kanoa. The two of them play together non-stop to the point that it makes me tired watching them! 😉 His side projects are chewing as much rawhide as he can, lying out in the sun, and destroying any chew toys that are called “indestructible” in under five minutes!
