Date:20/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/20/stories/2008042057001800.htm

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‘Sea dog’ to get a new home

LOS ANGELES: Snickers the ‘Sea dog’ is barely more than a pup, but it is already an old salt.

The eight-month-old pooch spent three months adrift on a 15-metre boat and survived four months on tiny Fanning Island, 1610 km south of Hawaii, where his owners left him after their sailing boat ran aground last December.

Now the cocker spaniel, which is in quarantine on Oahu after being rescued by Norwegian Cruise Line workers and a bevy of other people, will be flown to Los Angeles to meet a man who desperately wants to adopt it: retired Las Vegas resident Jack Joslin.

“I love animals,” Mr. Joslin said. “I had two dogs up until the middle of March. Then I had to have my border collie euthanised. The day they called saying the ashes were back was when I read the story [about Snickers]. It occurred to me I could do something.”

Hawaiian Airlines, moved by the dog’s survival story, has given the go-ahead on flying the animal for free to the mainland. — AP