Couple adopts viral dog who was abandoned ahead of Hurricane Milton
"Within three minutes, we were best friends," Frank Spina said of Trooper.
A young dog whose story went viral after a video was posted showing him tied up along a Florida highway ahead of Hurricane Milton has found his fur-ever home.
Trooper, a brindle bull terrier who's estimated to be about 3 years old, was adopted from Leon County Humane Society in November by Frank and Carla Spina of Parkland, Florida.
"Trooper is going to have the best life. He will be with an owner who has breed experience and is well suited to offer him a permanent home for the rest of his life," the Tallahassee-based organization told "Good Morning America" in a statement.
Frank Spina told "GMA" he and his wife Carla Spina, who already have another bull terrier named Dallas, whom they rescued from Texas in 2019, "knew immediately" they wanted to help Trooper after seeing the viral video of him tied up and stranded in high water.
"We both said, 'We have to go get him.' So, that started the process. That was all the way back in October," Spina, a retired lawyer, recalled.
The Spinas subsequently got in touch with LCHS and were among the many who submitted an application to adopt Trooper. Spina said he feels they were selected because they already had experience adopting bull terriers.
"[My wife] also included a multi-page letter, and the letter really detailed our extensive experience with this specific breed back to 1992," Spina explained. "We have 33 years of experience just with bull terriers, so that, I think, piqued their interest. It made us stand out."
Spina told "GMA" he and his wife have cared for bull terriers for the last three decades and Trooper is now the fourth bull terrier they've welcomed into their home.
"They are all personality. They want to walk around the house with you. They're always trying to get into things. They're very inquisitive," Spina said, adding, "There's no other breed that we would ever have, and they're very special to us."
The adoption process wasn't a complete shoo-in for the Spinas, however. Spina said LCHS told them Trooper had exhibited "a lot of issues" with men, including the male staffers at the humane society. But the Spinas were confident they could handle Trooper, despite any past trauma he may have experienced, and they drove over 7 hours with their dog Dallas to Tallahassee to meet him and demonstrate how comfortable they were around a bull terrier.
"I said to them, 'Within five minutes, we're going to be best friends.' And they did not believe it. And within three minutes, we were best friends," Spina said of Trooper, whom he called "daddy's boy." "So they were really taken aback and impressed."
When Dallas met Trooper on that same visit, Spina said there was also an instant connection.
"When they met, it was like Dallas met Prince Charming. Her eyes lit up and they were kissing each other -- and I'll never forget, [one of the staffers] from the humane society looked at us and said, 'It's a match made in heaven.' She said, 'You cast the spell on him.'"
LCHS and Spina both said they wanted to share Trooper's happy ending to encourage others to consider animal adoption as well.
"We want to highlight the other dogs in shelters across the U.S. who are in need of homes and hope that Trooper's story influences those following his story to support their local shelters and rescues," the humane society said. "Adopting a dog from a shelter or rescue saves a dog from euthanasia, and you can offer so many dogs a life better than anything they've known before."
Added Spina, "I'm just asking people to consider and adopt a dog. Rescue a dog. They make you very happy. [Trooper] makes me much more happy than I make him."