Meet Scottie: Michigan's only Nevis Mango Hound

While shifting through the many interesting submissions we got from our All4Pets story submission page, one story stuck out to us in particular.

It’s the story of Scottie the Nevis Mango Hound, who found his forever home in Milan, Michigan, after a traumatic beginning on the island of St. Kitts.

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Scottie’s owners told us his unique story and the many, yet worthwhile, obstacles they went through to get him to Michigan.

“We have been traveling to the lower Caribbean for the past 27 years and had fallen in love with the island dogs,” Dawn Goerlitz, Scottie's owner said.

“They (the island dogs) are unique in their own versions. While down in St. Kitts in January we started searching on how we could adopt one. Dogs in the islands can have a very hard life as they are treated like a disposable commodity. We found Care Nevis run by a very remarkable woman Jane Costello, who moved to the island and started a rescue center. She at that time posted on their Facebook page about nine puppies whose mother was hit and killed by a car and the puppies were just a few days old. We followed the puppies over the weeks as she bottle fed and reared these dogs (she lost 1). Upon seeing Scottie's picture, we knew he was our dog and inquired about how to adopt him.”

Scottie's story only gets more amazing from here.

“We had many correspondences with Jane and filled out the form and she accepted now we had to wait for him to get big enough to travel,” Goerlitz said.  “Once he was 8 weeks old, he was turned over to foster parents from Ross Veterinary College on the island of St. Kitts.”

“We had considered flying back down to get him, but waited to see if he could find a co-pilot off island back to the states. All dogs adopted off island travel with a person who is willing to be their guardian on a flight, which is hard to get, as only American Airlines is willing to fly an adopted dog back to the states. Lucky for us and him, his foster parents were coming home on break and were more than willing to be his co-pilots! And so his journey began.”

“All of his other siblings have been adopted by people in the states. It is hard to explain why we went so far to adopt Scottie unless you check out Jane's rescue center and understand that there is a severe problem with not spaying and neutering and the lack of education about pet owner responsibility.”

After three flights traveling a total of 2,344 miles, a team of caring veterinarians and a loving couple willing to go through the ordeal to have him, Scottie the Nevis Mango Hound found his forever home in Michigan.