A runaway puppy struck by a truck on the George Washington Bridge and rescued by Port Authority police officers last week is now on the mend, officials say.
Six-month-old Ronin managed to wriggle out of his collar the afternoon of Sept. 10 while on a walk along Fort Washington Avenue with his owner's fiance.
"I was at work and he called and said, 'Hey Des, Ronin is gone -- he slipped his collar and I can't find him,'" owner Desiree Justin told NBC 4 New York.
Justin was frantic.
"My baby is gone, I need to be home, I need to find him," she recalled thinking.
Ronin wound up on the upper-level inbound side of the GWB, and was hit by a truck. Port Authority police officers arrived to find Ronin bleeding heavily from his front right paw and leg. He was whisked to Oradell Animal Hospital to get emergency treatment.
Meanwhile, Justin, who had put up missing posters, got a phone call the same afternoon.
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"I got a tip from someone who saw one of my flyers, who said, 'I think I saw your dog on the GWB," she said.
She immediately called Port Authority police, and the officers who found Ronin got in touch with Justin and even gave her a rider to the New Jersey animal hospital to pick up her puppy.
"Oh, my God, I think I just bawled," she said. "They said he didn't make a peep the whole time they rescued him, that he was so tough. And when he saw me, he started squealing and I started crying."
Ronin was back with his family Friday, recovering while in a wheelchair and taking baby steps on his injured leg.
"When the police officers saved him, they said, 'You should name him Lucky,'" Justin said. "So now his new nickname is Lucky George."
So there it is: Ronin Lucky George Justin.
