Dog Whose Nose Was Cut Off Gets His Very First Bed
Anubis seems to be settling in just fine in the land of the living.
Appropriately named after an ancient Egyptian god of the underworld, the street dog had spent much of his life suffering silently in his own hell - beneath parked cars in a Cairo neighborhood.
Those mean streets had taken their toll on Anubis. Half his muzzle was completely severed off as punishment, his rescuers say, for making too much noise when thieves trespassed on the property he was guarding.
"He barked and they cut his nose off," Lauren Connelly of Special Needs Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation (SNARR) told The Dodo at the time.
But since then, Anubis has made an incredible journey befitting his mythological namesake, from Cairo to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to El Paso, Texas.
That odyssey, ushered along by a legion of volunteers who took turns driving him, brought Anubis at last to his foster family, Joseph Reed and Katiria Declete.
"To go from Egypt all the way to New York and then to have all those people step up to the plate to help us get him here," Reed told local station KFOX14. "It's a dream of us to foster him but there's no way we could have financially made that undertaking and it speaks volumes about the different groups that help get him here."
Indeed, Anubis' ascent from hell began with a Cairo-based rescue called the Animal Protection Foundation, which was alerted to the dog's plight by locals. The group got in touch with Louisiana-based Special Needs Animal Rescue & Rehabilitation (SNARR), which organized his world-spanning journey.
Anubis still has a few more steps to go on his path to a happy ending.
He needs a forever home - although he may not have to go very far to find one.
SNARR gives foster parents the right of first refusal. That decision won't be made until Anubis is checked for heartworm and microchipped, but by the sounds of it, Anubis may be staying right where he is.
"The moment I saw him, I'm like, 'I want this dog!'" Declete told KFOX 14. "I want to make a difference in his life."
Want to make a difference in a dog's life too? Consider making a donation to SNARR, a group that brings countless desperate dogs from around the world to a real home.
You can also find the perfect pet through Adopt-a-Pet.com.