From “crack house” to firehouse, Ashley aka “Ash” the pit bull, was found and saved by two animal rescuers.
Erica Mahnken and her fiancé, Michael Favor, found Ashley inside an abandoned crack house in Staten Island, New York, in January. The two found the dog malnourished, underweight, and covered in cigarette burns. She was left without food, water, or electricity.
“It was freezing out. There was nothing in the house. No, we didn’t think about it — we just ran and got her and said we’ll figure out what we were going to do after we got her out of there,” Mahnken told CBS News.
Mahnken, Favor and their friend Lara Ribeiro started foster-based rescue No More Pain Rescue nearly a year ago. Unfortunately, they had nowhere to place the dog so they called up firefighter friends of theirs who worked at a Lower East Side FDNY station called “Fort Pitt.” The firefighters, who used to house a rottweiler, agreed to temporarily welcome the dog on January 9th.
Much to the three rescuers’ surprise, one of the firefighters called up Mahnken and asked if they could adopt the dog. Mahnken said yes.
“My heart wants to explode,” Mahnken said. “Everyone’s so quick to judge a dog, especially a dog you don’t know where it came from or what kind of person they are and what kind… It is very satisfying.”
Now, the nearly 1-year-old dog is loving life in her new home. Ash loves to hang out with the crew in the kitchen and goes on ride al with the firefighters when they respond to a fire. She even has her own little spot on the fire truck, Mahnken added.
Ash’s health has been thriving ever since she was rescued. She went from about 25lbs underweight and the FDNY firefighters say she now weighs about 50lbs.
She even has her own official Instagram account, which currently has 16.5k followers. Her firefighter friends provide almost daily updates of her loving her new job and home.
“That’s not my good side,” says Ash of one of her Instagram photos that shows her reading an article written about her.
“Whenever she’s there her tail is wagging, she’s super friendly and jumping on everybody,” Mahnken said. “She’s really loveable.”
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