Dog Abandoned With His Suitcase Is Doing Fine, No Thanks to Ex-Owner
There's a partial resolution to the heartbreaking story of the Shar-pei mix abandoned at a Scottish train station last week with a suitcase full of his stuff. The Scottish Daily Record reports the doggie we knew as Kai—whose real name turns out to be Pluto—is doing just fine now, but the story of his abandonment is just as sad and full of shitty human tricks as you imagined.
Pluto was betrayed not only by his original owner, but by the new owner who agreed to buy him. Fin Rayner told the Record that she agreed to buy the dog on Gumtree—the U.K. analogue to Craigslist—but when she showed up to collect him, he wasn't the same pooch pictured in the ads.
"The guy rushed out with a food chest and lead on the dog. But I could see there was something up because he was very skinny," she said.
"I said I wanted to take the dog for a walk, so he asked me for £150 as a deposit in case I didn't come back. Then I saw him tearing off in his car. I phoned and said 'You better come back for your dog'. He never turned up."
Rayner and her daughter needed to catch a train back to Aberdeen, but they didn't want to take Pluto with them, so Rayner told the train station staff he belonged to someone else, then tied him to a railing and skipped out.
After his tragic double abandonment, Pluto is living with the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, who've raised nearly $4,000 for his care. They've also received adoption offers from around the world, so the dog has no shortage of potential new homes. First, though, the SPCA is getting him an eye operation he needs.
The Record made a video of Pluto when they stopped by to drop off some treats and toys, and he seems to be happy and doing well.
The Record doesn't say anything about possible charges against the parties who abandoned the dog, and possibly mistreated him before he was ever sold. Scottish animal protection laws can punish abusers by banning them from owning pets for life.
Rayner still thinks she did the right thing by ditching Pluto in the train station.
"What about me and my daughter, what we had to go through? I told somebody, I made sure the dog was safe," she said.
What about it? Someone made sure the dog the was safe, it's true, but it wasn't the woman who left him with a sad little suitcase and no home.
[Photo: Daily Record]