Photo: LIRR
The owner of an 8-year-oldEnglish bulldoghas two Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) employees to thank for reuniting him with his beloved pup.
Mike Francow, a building construction owner from Suffolk County, New York, was eating lunch at a park in East Hampton last Tuesday when his dog named Sampson ran off.
For hours, Francow desperately searched for Sampson. But the canine was nowhere to be found.
“He’s the type of dog that always returns,” Francow told theNew York Post. “He would usually come back to my van.”
LIRR
Luckily, LIRR engineer Christian Beck spotted Sampson on the tracks while slowly moving his 10:10 a.m. Montauk-bound train out of Jamaica.
“As a dog lover, it’s like my worst fear to hit a dog,” Beck told thePost. “Luckily it was a section of track where the max speed you can go is only like 40 miles an hour. It was enough time to react and slow the train.”
Beck and assistant conductor Vinny Fragale stepped off the train and called to Sampson, who hid in the shadow of the train’s engine.
“I could tell, like, ‘Oh he’s been out for a while, he just wants some shade,'” said Beck. “I was thinking about my own dog, like, you know, if he was left out. Or he had gotten out somewhere else. I’d be totally scared.”
After a few minutes, Beck and Fragale managed to get Sampson onboard. They gave the bulldog some water and continued on their journey to Montauk, arriving on-time at 12:54 p.m.
Beck, Fragale, and other LIRR crew members posted about Sampson in enough missing pets Facebook groups that word got back to Francow that his precious bulldog was safe.
“He loves to ride, so I’m sure when the train pulled up and they opened the door he was like, ‘Sure, this is great,’ " Francow told thePostabout Sampson.
Francow retrieved Sampson from the LIRR crew members several hours later once the train returned to Bridgehampton. There, Beck and Fragale posed for a celebratory photo with Sampson beside the train before sending the dog home.
“Those are some really special people to do that and take care of him,” said Francow.
Francow also said that he plans to put a tag on Sampson to ensure that an incident like this never happens again.
source: people.com
